Design of a decentralized reusable research database architecture to support data acquisition in large research projects.

The diagnostic and therapeutic processes, as well as the development of new treatments, are hindered by the fragmentation of information which underlies them. In a multi-institutional research study database, the clinical information system (CIS) contains the primary data input. An important part of the money of large scale clinical studies is often paid for data creation and maintenance. The objective of this work is to design a decentralized, scalable, reusable database architecture with lower maintenance costs for managing and integrating distributed heterogeneous data required as basis for a large-scale research project. Technical and legal aspects are taken into account based on various use case scenarios. The architecture contains 4 layers: data storage and access are decentralized at their production source, a connector as a proxy between the CIS and the external world, an information mediator as a data access point and the client side. The proposed design will be implemented inside six clinical centers participating in the @neurIST project as part of a larger system on data integration and reuse for aneurism treatment.