Perspectives on the Adoption of Electronic Resources for Use in Clinical Trials

Abstract

Clinical trials are specific medical studies that use human subjects for the advancement of medicine. Evidence-based medicine requires the use of clinical trials to evaluate new treatments, devices, drugs, and modalities for the prevention and treatment of diseases. Clinical trials have not been particularly aggressive in their adoption of information technology (IT). In this analysis, we examine the impact of electronic resources on the execution and management of clinical trials. Further, we present a theoretical model showing the main areas of clinical trials that can be directly impacted by the adoption of electronic resources. The four areas identified are recruitment, data collection, process data management, and information dissemination.