When people think about data integrity, the first thing that usually comes to mind is "fraud", data altering or being able to prove that the data reported is authentic. today, I want you to think about data integrity in a different way......retention.
Let's talk about data disaster recovery.
Lost Data is an absolute disaster. I'm talking about a lost that can't be recovered at your place of business. If you suffered a catastrophe like the Tsunammi that destroyed so much in Japan or Hurricane Katrina that destroyed New Orleans, would you be able to get your business back up and running within a matter of hours or days? Well, a good data disaster recovery program can ensure you do not lose all of the patients' medical information or clinical trial data already obtained.
Most investigative sites that I audit have not given sufficient thought to document/data retention despite the fact that regulations (laws) require these records be kept for a determined length of time.
Clinical Investigators need to consider more than offsite backup solutions like Iron Mountain; they should consider scanning documents and storing them on DVD or a data-stick or some type of media where the information can be recovered in case of a a natural disaster such as a fire or similar.
I've written a detailed article on this topic telling you exactly how you can protect your medical records and clinical research data. Check it out at my website.
See you next time!
Sarah
Saturday, January 2, 2010
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