Haridimos Kondylakis1, Lefteris Koumakis2, Stephanie Hänold3, Iheanyi Nwankwo3, Nikolaus Forgó3, Kostas Marias2, Manolis Tsiknakis4, Norbert Graf5. 1. Computational BioMedicine Laboratory, FORTH-ICS, N. Plastira 100, Heraklion, Greece. Electronic address: kondylak@ics.forth.gr. 2. Computational BioMedicine Laboratory, FORTH-ICS, N. Plastira 100, Heraklion, Greece. 3. Institute for Legal Informatics, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Königsworther Platz 1, 30167 Hannover, Germany. 4. Computational BioMedicine Laboratory, FORTH-ICS, N. Plastira 100, Heraklion, Greece; Department of Informatics Engineering, Technological Educational Institute of Crete, Estavromenos 71004, Heraklion, Crete, Greece. 5. Department for Pediatric Oncology and Hematology, Saarland University Hospital, Homburg, Germany.
Abstract
PURPOSE: Biomedical research is being catalyzed by the vast amount of data rapidly collected through the application of information technologies (IT). Despite IT advances, the methods for involving patients and citizens in biomedical research remain static, paper-based and organized around national boundaries and anachronistic legal frameworks. The purpose of this paper is to study the current practices for obtaining consent for biobanking and the legal requirements for reusing the available biomaterial and data in EU and finally to present a novel tool to this direction enabling the secondary use of data and biomaterial. METHOD: We review existing European legislation for secondary use of patient's biomaterial and data for research, identify types and scopes of consent, formal requirements for consent, and consider their implications for implementing electronic consent tools. To this direction, we proceed further to develop a modular tool, named Donor's Support Tool (DST), designed to connect researchers with participants, and to promote engagement, informed participation and individual decision making. RESULTS: To identify the advantages of our solution we compare our tool with six other relevant approaches. The results show that our tool scores higher than the other tools in functionality, security and intelligence whereas it is the only one free and open-source. In addition, the potential of our solution is shown by a proof of concept deployment in an existing clinical setting, where it was really appreciated, as streamlining the relevant workflow. Copyright Â
PURPOSE: Biomedical research is being catalyzed by the vast amount of data rapidly collected through the application of information technologies (IT). Despite IT advances, the methods for involving patients and citizens in biomedical research remain static, paper-based and organized around national boundaries and anachronistic legal frameworks. The purpose of this paper is to study the current practices for obtaining consent for biobanking and the legal requirements for reusing the available biomaterial and data in EU and finally to present a novel tool to this direction enabling the secondary use of data and biomaterial. METHOD: We review existing European legislation for secondary use of patient's biomaterial and data for research, identify types and scopes of consent, formal requirements for consent, and consider their implications for implementing electronic consent tools. To this direction, we proceed further to develop a modular tool, named Donor's Support Tool (DST), designed to connect researchers with participants, and to promote engagement, informed participation and individual decision making. RESULTS: To identify the advantages of our solution we compare our tool with six other relevant approaches. The results show that our tool scores higher than the other tools in functionality, security and intelligence whereas it is the only one free and open-source. In addition, the potential of our solution is shown by a proof of concept deployment in an existing clinical setting, where it was really appreciated, as streamlining the relevant workflow. Copyright Â
Authors: Carolyn Petersen; Robin R Austin; Uba Backonja; Hugo Campos; Arlene E Chung; Eric B Hekler; Pei-Yun S Hsueh; Katherine K Kim; Anthony Pho; Liz Salmi; Anthony Solomonides; Rupa S Valdez Journal: JAMIA Open Date: 2019-12-03