GDPR and Clinical Trials Amid COVID-19

5/26/2020

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The World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending using telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. To keep subjects and site personnel safe, many sites have transitioned to using telehealth for study visits. What about safeguarding data and privacy? The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has some stringent rules for collecting or processing data which includes during the conduct of a clinical trial.

OCR Update on HIPAA and COVID-19

5/19/2020

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The HIPAA Privacy Rule is frequently used as the reason for not allowing data to be shared, even when the participant’s HIPAA authorization states allowance of disclosing PHI, including remotely or virtually. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released a February Bulletin on HIPAA and COVID-19 to clarify how Protected Health Information (PHI) can be shared while still maintaining privacy during the crisis.

NEW UPDATE to Appendix FAQ: FDA’s COVID-19 Clinical Trial Guidance on May 11th

5/12/2020

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As clinical research professionals proceed to work around COVID-19 restrictions while maintaining GCP, questions continue to arise. On May 11th, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released an updated Q&A section of their COVID-19 clinical trial guidance with three additional questions and answers included.

Some questions of note from the last two updates are:

EMA Updates Guidance on Clinical Trials Amid COVID-19 Restrictions

5/05/2020

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As we are settling into the new normal of COVID-19 restrictions, many are still unsure how to proceed to maintain subject safety and data integrity and face decisions on whether to continue clinical trials, suspend them, or even start a new trial. Questions remain about how to securely monitor source data remotely while maintaining data privacy and following regulations, and new issues became evident, such as how subjects could receive investigational product at home. There are many sources of information to guide sites and sponsors/CROs through these challenges.