PhUSE creates open source repository for clinical trial research

PhUSE, a non-profit community with the goal of furthering advances in clinical information technology, has opened a repository for open source software and is inviting contributors to submit code and documentation. The goal of the initiative is to create a collection of standard processes and tools to gather and analyse data from clinical trials. The repository will be used by researchers from the fields of medicine, from pharmaceutical and biotech companies, as well as academics and government regulators. The repository is hosted at Google Code and is accepting contributions through the PhUSE Wiki.

The maintainers of the repository are asking individuals and organisations working with medical data to contribute scripts, programs and other resources. Users of these tools are also encouraged to get involved and can help by gauging the usefulness of submitted code. The collected resources will be used to build upon existing CDISC (Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium) data standards. Chris Decker from PhUSE said: "Over the last 10 years, we have developed and implemented the CDISC data standards. Now it’s time to take that last step of standardizing our analyses and code as much as possible."

More details about how to get involved in the initiative are available in the user guide for the repository on the PhUSE Wiki. Code can be submitted under a variety of open source licences. Current members involved in the maintenance of the repository are listed on the Google Code page.

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