Northwestern Medicine Reports Findings in Data Management (Technological Adjuncts to Streamline Patient Recruitment, Informed Consent, and Data Management Processes in Clinical Research: Observational Study): Information Technology – Data Management

2025 FEB 11 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Information Technology - Data Management is the subject of a report. According to news reporting originating from Chicago, Illinois, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Patient recruitment and data management are laborious, resource-intensive aspects of clinical research that often dictate whether the successful completion of studies is possible. Technological advances present opportunities for streamlining these processes, thus improving completion rates for clinical research studies.”

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Northwestern Medicine, “This paper aims to demonstrate how technological adjuncts can enhance clinical research processes via automation and digital integration. Using one clinical research study as an example, we highlighted the use of technological adjuncts to automate and streamline research processes across various digital platforms, including a centralized database of electronic medical records (enterprise data warehouse [EDW]); a clinical research data management tool (REDCap [Research Electronic Data Capture]); and a locally managed, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant server. Eligible participants were identified through automated queries in the EDW, after which they received personalized email invitations with digital consent forms. After digital consent, patient data were transferred to a single Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant server where each participant was assigned a unique QR code to facilitate data collection and integration. After the research study visit, data obtained were associated with existing electronic medical record data for each participant via a QR code system that collated participant consent, imaging data, and associated clinical data according to a unique examination ID. Over a 19-month period, automated EDW queries identified 20,988 eligible patients, and 10,582 patients received personalized email invitations. In total, 1000 (9.45%) patients signed consents to participate in the study. Of the consented patients, 549 unique patients completed 779 study visits; some patients consented to the study at more than 1 time period during their pregnancy. Technological adjuncts in clinical research decrease human labor while increasing participant reach and minimizing disruptions to clinic operations.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Automating portions of the clinical research process benefits clinical research efforts by expanding and optimizing participant reach while reducing the limitations of labor and time in completing research studies.”

For more information on this research see: Technological Adjuncts to Streamline Patient Recruitment, Informed Consent, and Data Management Processes in Clinical Research: Observational Study. JMIR Formative Research, 2025;9.

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Stacey Caron, Northwestern Medicine, Chicago, IL, United States. Additional authors for this research include Jodie Koh, Amber N. Watters, Mahesh Vaidyanathan, David Melnick, Alyssa Santi, Kenneth Hudson, Catherine Arguelles, Priyanka Mathur and Mozziyar Etemadi.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.2196/58628. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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