Datazoom's 'Research Smarts' Provides Insights for Healthcare Research in Rarer Diseases

While Heart Disease, Cancer and HIV remain the most prominently known diseases, there are several other diseases which are equally debilitating, although affecting a significantly smaller population. In several rarer diseases, the challenge is to obtain quality information about the disease as there is only a limited amount of patient data available at one location. Web based Technology is changing all this. Healthcare researchers specialized in these diseases, can now collaborate across cities, states, provinces and countries to equip themselves with quality information. Information about prevention, control and treatment can be collected and disseminated using web technologies across the globe, while not compromising the security and privacy of patient information. Datazoom Solutions based out of Mississauga, Ontario, has created a software product and platform that provides the security, robustness and performance to facilitate clinical research into rarer diseases.

Mississauga, Ontario (PRWEB) July 9, 2008 -- Healthcare research in rarer diseases has taken a promising turn with a wider adoption of web-based technology products such as "Research Smarts" by Datazoom Solutions Inc.

The challenge with rarer diseases is that it is difficult to draw any trends based on quality information, as the sample size at an individual location is not large enough. At the same time most of the research resources are focused on cancers, heart disease and HIV, which affect a significantly larger population. For pharmaceutical companies, who are profit-making entities, there is more data availability and bottomline profit in inventing drugs for the prominent diseases. Researchers specialized in diseases such as Lupus, Hepatitis, Ankylosing Spondylitis, Scleroderma and other relatively obscure diseases have found it difficult to provide quality data to pharmaceutical companies for obtaining their assistance in coming out with drugs for these diseases.

Technology is changing all this. Datazoom Solutions "Research Smarts" allows clinical researchers to collaborate across distinct geographies to collect and disseminate quality information about these rarer diseases. The solution based on the industry-leading Oracle database and Microsoft's ASP.Net front-end, provides different mechanisms for collecting quality data from different locations. Research Smarts provides a highly intuitive user interface to facilitate quick and easy data entry while still ensuring data quality. Clinical practitioners and researchers are extremely busy people and as such special attention has been provided to speed and robustness, allowing them to save precious seconds. Cost-effectiveness of such a solution is also a key issue as funds are not available for rarer diseases in the same ratio.

Even more noteworthy is the fact that some of Datazoom's projects have patients entering their information in a self-service mode, using a secure URL, to keep their clinical practitioners aware of their state of health. This saves time for everyone while ensuring quality information is being made available for patient care and research in a timely fashion. The software platform also links in laboratory information as well as X-Rays and biologic samples.

"An integrated database is helping us to make faster and more informed research decisions. Datazoom has been particularly helpful in adapting the product for our research", says Dr. Virginia Steen of Georgetown University, a renowned rheumatologist and specialist in Scleroderma.

"The data quality controls embedded in the Datazoom application and its excellent performance facilitate easy and seamless data extraction and analysis while enhancing data quality and integrity" says Dr. David Spence of Robarts Research Institute who uses a modified version of Datazoom's product.

Several other research initiatives in rarer skin diseases, cancers, arthritis conditions and others are using Datazoom's Research Smarts platform for quality insights into these diseases. Datazoom also provides a localized version of their software called "Clinical Smarts" which allows clinical practitioners for managing patient data while at the same time contributing that data for centralized analysis. All this occurs while conforming to the legal rules and regulations regarding privacy and confidentiality of data, such as HIPAA.

The product uses the latest security and encryption mechanisms for storing sensitive research data. Datazoom has provided a self-service, real-time data extraction and intelligent analytics for the researchers and an easy integration path for statistical analysis tools. Datazoom's secure web-based application can be launched from the hospital intranet, independent clinics, and even remotely from patient's homes. Site level and user level data access controls are provided throughout the application. Data validation and immediate feedback is incorporated for data entry users using soft and hard ranges for relevant fields.

For additional information on the news that is the subject of this release, contact Rajesh Dixit or visit Datazoom Solutions.

About Datazoom Solutions
Datazoom Solutions provides information technology solutions for clinical practice and clinical research in several specialized fields. Applications are available for most clinical specialties and solutions can be deployed rapidly using a component-based model.

Contact:
Rajesh Dixit,
Director Consulting Marketing

Datazoom Solutions Inc.
Tel: 905-896-6970
Datazoom Solutions Inc.

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