This webinar will provide an overview of the Clinical Research Track plans for the New Orleans Connectathon. The Clinical Research Track will continue to further explore the benefits of FHIR for clinical research of new biopharmaceutical experimental treatments, and to increase visibility of FHIR within the biopharmaceutical community. This track advances the use of FHIR resources as eSource data used to pre-populate clinical research case report forms for both regulated and non-regulated clinical research. This builds on previous explorations in Connectathon 13-16. Plans for this connection include participation from at least 5 Pharmaceutical companies, Members of TransCelerate Biopharma, Inc. and technology implementers will simulate using FHIR to populate and manage clinical study databases. A set of 2-3 detailed use case scenarios will be proposed. This work will inform development of profiles and Implementation Guides to support clinical research using FHIR.

Clinical Research studies currently require the redundant entry of clinical data that already typically reside in Meaningful Use conformant EHR systems. EHR data represents original records in electronic format that can be used as eSource and directly imported into clinical research EDC databases so as to improve the quality and consistency of data between EHR and EDC systems and eliminate the need for redundant data entry and to improve the ability to use real world data in research. Establishing interoperability between EHR and EDC systems to streamline and modernize clinical investigations should improve data accuracy, patient safety, and clinical research efficiency. Given the extreme cost and extended time required for randomized clinical trials, it would be substantially better to utilize EHR source data to directly populate clinical trial databases wherever feasible and to use FHIR to gain increased visibility into patient encounters and patient-originated data. As stated in its May 2016 FDA draft guidance titled “Use of Electronic Health Record Data in Clinical Investigations” FDA “encourages sponsors and clinical investigators to work with the entities that control the EHRs, such as health care organizations, to use EHRs and EDC systems that are interoperable. Establishing interoperability between EHR and EDC systems to streamline and modernize clinical investigations should improve data accuracy, patient safety, and clinical research efficiency.”