IgniteData helps explore EHR-EDC capture in live pilot study

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has teamed up with IgniteData and AstraZeneca to evaluate how electronic health records to electronic data capture could perform in a clinical setting, in applied clinical trials.

In a live pilot, the trio found that IgniteData’s transfer technology, Archer, could map 100% of vital signs and labs data, and was capable of successfully transferring 100% of mapped data from these domains.

Four patients from an AstraZeneca-sponsored phase 3 oncology study were enrolled into a live mirror study. Data from the first five of their visits was electronically transferred from University College London Hospitals (UCLH)’s electronic health record (EHR) to a copy of the scope database. In scope were three data intensive, structured domains: vital signs, labs and concomitant medications.

Dr Nick McNally, managing director, UCL/UCLH Research, said: “Evidence from our collaboration with IgniteData and AstraZeneca shows that laborious manual data transcription methods might realistically become a thing of the past as we see clear advances in data transfer technology.

“The UCLH team found Archer to be intuitive and easy to use. We were up and running after a short but comprehensive training session – exactly as we hoped.”

Using Archer, the process of transferring mapped data showed time savings when compared to manual methods, even with the extra steps taken for manual lookups in verifying data accuracy – a step that would be automated in a real trial setting. In addition, it was found that Archer could significantly reduce Source Data Verification and query resolution time in a live study.

Professor Bryan Williams, UCLH director of research, said: “These are important results from a very successful pilot. The study highlights the value of having digital data in an EHR, which can then be rapidly transferred in a semi-automated way to other research systems.

“The results published today are encouraging for the future of research using data. They streamline the delivery of research, and importantly, the way this technology works means that hospitals can maintain control over the data.”

The data transfer technology from IgniteData is unique in offering a sophisticated mapping engine that has been purpose designed to tackle the specific complexities of healthcare ontologies. It combines system-agnostic interoperability between EHR and research systems with speed of data transfer and accuracy of data mapped. Throughout the process, no clinical data is stored and there is a live step-by-step review and approval process so data ownership and control are never compromised.

The insights gained from this pilot study will now be used to inform ongoing collaborative plans to optimise CRF design, explore medical coding of EHR medications and expand the use of EHR – to – electronic data capture technology across various domains.

AstraZeneca has also recently announced a strategic research collaboration with Qureight which will help advance research into lung diseases through AI models.