Supporting grid-based clinical trials in Scotland.

A computational infrastructure to underpin complex clinical trials and medical population studies is highly desirable. This should allow access to a range of distributed clinical data sets; support the efficient processing and analysis of the data obtained; have security at its heart; and ensure that authorized individuals are able to see privileged data and no more. Each clinical trial has its own requirements on data sets and how they are used; hence a reusable and flexible framework offers many advantages. The MRC funded Virtual Organisations for Trials and Epidemiological Studies (VOTES) is a collaborative project involving several UK universities specifically to explore this space. This article presents the experiences of developing the Scottish component of this nationwide infrastructure, by the National e-Science Centre (NeSC) based at the University of Glasgow, and the issues inherent in accessing and using the clinical data sets in a flexible, dynamic and secure manner.