As clinical trials and medical population studies grow in size and complexity, a computational infrastructure that can underpin such studies is highly desirable. This should address several key requirements: it should allow access to and usage of a range of distributed clinical data sets; it should support the efficient processing and analysis of the data obtained; it should have security at its heart and ensure that authorised individuals are able to see data that they are privileged to see and no more. Each clinical trial will have their own requirements on data sets and how they are used, hence a reusable framework that can support a variety of clinical trials and epidemiological studies offers many advantages. The MRC funded Virtual Organisations for Trials and Epidemiological Studies (VOTES) project is a collaborative project involving several UK universities specifically exploring this space. This paper presents the experiences and challenges in developing the Scottish component...
Richard O. Sinnott, A. J. Stell, Oluwafemi Ajayi