ArticleF1000Research2016
Improving data transparency in clinical trials using blockchain smart contracts.
Article in F1000Research, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 54 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
54 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 319 citations in OpenAlex.
- Blockchain Smart Contracts for Automating Clinical Trials: Systematic Review and Proposed System Architecture.JMIR medical informatics · 2026Pooled it
- A Comprehensive Review of the Revolutionary Potential of Blockchain in Safe, Secure, and Sustainable Pharmaceutical Operations.Pharmaceutical research · 2026Pooled it
- A systematic study on blockchain technology for genomic data management in healthcare: approaches, challenges, and research opportunities.Medical & biological engineering & computing · 2026Pooled it
- A systematic review of the blockchain application in healthcare research domain: toward a unified conceptual model.Medical & biological engineering & computing · 2025Pooled it
- Exploring applications of blockchain in healthcare: road map and future directions.Frontiers in public health · 2023Pooled it
- Applications of Blockchain in the Medical Field: Narrative Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Pooled it
- Acceptance of Smart Contracts in Patients Receiving Primary Care: Exploratory Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Enhancing randomized clinical trials with digital twins.NPJ systems biology and applications · 2025Review
- The benefits and challenges of blockchain in healthcare supply chain management in KSA: A systematic review.Journal of Taibah University Medical Sciences · 2025Review
- Retrospective analysis and decentralized distribution to improve the lifecycle of Ah receptor research assets.Biochemical pharmacology · 2025Article
- Validation and user experience testing of DataCryptChain: An open-source standard combining blockchain technology with asymmetric encryption for private, secure, shareable, and tamper-proof research data.PLOS digital health · 2025Article
- Blockchain-enabled quality by design system for clinical trials.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Use of Blockchain Technology to Accelerate Digital Health Transformation Programs.Blockchain in healthcare today · 2025Review
- The Digital Platform and Its Emerging Role in Decentralized Clinical Trials.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
- Blockchain technology and raft consensus for secure physician prescriptions and improved diagnoses in electronic healthcare systems.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Blockchain integration in healthcare: a comprehensive investigation of use cases, performance issues, and mitigation strategies.Frontiers in digital health · 2024Review
- Machine Learning in Cardiovascular Risk Prediction and Precision Preventive Approaches.Current atherosclerosis reports · 2023Review
- Blockchain in nephrology.Nature reviews. Nephrology · 2023Article
- Scrybe: A Secure Audit Trail for Clinical Trial Data Fusion.Digital threats : research and practice · 2023Article
- Blockchain technology applications in the health domain: a multivocal literature review.The Journal of supercomputing · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The scientific credibility of findings from clinical trials can be undermined by a range of problems including missing data, endpoint switching, data dredging, and selective publication. Together, these issues have contributed to systematically distorted perceptions regarding the benefits and risks of treatments. While these issues have been well documented and widely discussed within the profession, legislative intervention has seen limited success. Recently, a method was described for using a blockchain to prove the existence of documents describing pre-specified endpoints in clinical trials. Here, we extend the idea by using smart contracts - code, and data, that resides at a specific address in a blockchain, and whose execution is cryptographically validated by the network - to demonstrate how trust in clinical trials can be enforced and data manipulation eliminated. We show that blockchain smart contracts provide a novel technological solution to the data manipulation problem, by acting as trusted administrators and providing an immutable record of trial history.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.