Researchers Test Blockchain for Clinical Trails’ Data Integrity

Researchers at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have developed a proof-of-concept method for using blockchain to safeguard data integrity of clinical trials. Blockchain creates an audit trail that makes it easy to detect tampering with results, such as making the treatment look more effective than it is or diminishing the impace of side effects. “We propose a blockchain-based system to make data collected in the clinical trial process immutable, traceable, and potentially more trustworthy,” the researchers wrote in their article describing their proof of concept. The researchers related that they used data from a completed clinical trial, simulated the trial using a proof-of-concept web portal service, and tested resilience to tampering with the data.