Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) said that the Ministry of Health and Welfare has selected the hospital as the primary research institute for its “Smart Clinical Trial Platform Infrastructure Development Project.”

With the decision, the hospital will receive 12.4 billion won ($10.2 million) from the ministry over three years and other hospitals, including Severance Hospital and Asan Medical Center, will also participate in the project.

The project aims to accomplish goals, ranging from the development of safety management technology for clinical trials using ICT technology, to the operation and quality improvement of a multi-center clinical trial network, and initial clinical trial technology for the next generation of new drugs.

Other goals include the development of evidence-based clinical trial design and decision-making technology, common data model and selection of clinical trial candidates, electronic medical record-clinical electronic case record sheet interlocking technology, multicenter clinical trial e-IRB mutual recognition technology, and multi-center clinical trial information sharing platform.

“Through this project, we plan to discover the clinical trial technology using ICT and present the medical utilization model of ICT technology to increase the success rate and efficiency of new drug development in Korea,” said Professor Kim Kyung-hwan, the head researcher for the project. “Ultimately, the project will provide us with an opportunity to improve national health by increasing access to new drugs and activating local clinical trials.”