SOCIO-ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF USING BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY IN CLINICAL TRIAL DATA MANAGEMENT

Abstract

The article considers blockchain technology, which is one of the types of distributed ledger technology and currently has real prospects for application in the medical field, in particular for managing data arrays in clinical trials. The essence of the currently existing discussion among medical managers and other employees on the feasibility of introducing blockchain technology into clinical trials is revealed. To address this issue, the authors carried out a thorough analysis of the social and economic aspects of the application of blockchain technology in clinical trial data management.  As a result of the analysis of a large number of scientific publications, social effects of the use of blockchain technology in the management of clinical trial data have been established and systematized. The article proves that the social effect of using blockchain technology in the management of clinical trial data is certainly significant. This factor clearly indicates the need to use this technology in the practice of clinical trials. The authors argue that it is important for a contractual research organization, pharmaceutical company, healthcare institution or other entity in which a clinical trial is performed to take into account the economic component of using blockchain technology to manage data sets in the process of performing clinical trials. Therefore, for the final decision on the adoption of blockchain technology in the management of clinical trial data, the article also considers the approach to taking into account the economic aspect. To determine the economic effect of the introduction of blockchain technology, an appropriate calculation method has been proposed. According to this methodology, the effect of the application of blockchain technology depends on: the proportion of conflicting disease and treatment records (drug studies) that require reconciliation; percentage reduction in the cost of issuing one conditional entry in the patient's medical card. It is indicated that the predictive assessment of the effect for a medical institution depends on a specific blockchain solution. The conditional example in the article shows the expediency of applying the proposed methodology for determining the economic effect of using blockchain technology in the management of clinical trial data.