ArticleHealth science reports2025
Combining Real-World and Clinical Trial Data Through Privacy-Preserving Record Linkage: Opportunities and Challenges-A Narrative Review.
Article in Health science reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Linking clinical trial data with real-world data for enhanced clinical evidence generation: methodological considerations and recommendations.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- Combining Real-World and Clinical Trial Data Through Privacy-Preserving Record Linkage: Opportunities and Challenges-A Narrative Review.Health science reports · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background and Aims: Despite their widespread use, randomized clinical trials (RCTs) face challenges like differential loss to follow-up, which can impact validity. Real-world evidence (RWE) from real-world data (RWD) is increasingly used to address these limitations, but RCTs and RWE have provided complementary, disconnected observations of the patient journey. Privacy-preserving record linkage (PPRL) enables the integration of patient records across these data sources. This narrative review explores the potential use cases of PPRL to overcome the limitations of both RCTs and RWD for clinical research and regulatory decision-making. Methods: This manuscript is a narrative review and did not involve the collection or analysis of primary research data. The authors aimed for comprehensive topic coverage and a synthesis of key concepts from the current literature, rather than adhering to a formal systematic review protocol (e.g., PRISMA). Results: PPRL can generate a more comprehensive understanding of patient interaction with the healthcare system. For example, long-term information about participants before and after a trial can assist in identifying predictors of drug response or intolerance, reducing patient burden, and providing alternatives to traditional study designs. Linked data applications include expanding patient health histories and creating comprehensive patient data repositories that enable innovative trial designs. However, opportunities remain to demonstrate the provenance, quality, and completeness of RWD sources to ensure scientific rigor. Conclusion: Combining RCTs and RWD through PPRL offers significant and insufficiently explored potential for advancing drug development research, reducing operational costs, and enhancing data availability. Further consideration of PPRL use cases may drive innovative trial designs augmented with RWD, improving the ability of this collected data to support informed decision-making.
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.