Introduction – Data and Safety Monitoring ARCHIVED

CHAPTER SECTIONS

ARCHIVE Data and safety monitoring


Section 1

Introduction – Data and Safety Monitoring ARCHIVED

Contributors

There is an ethical obligation to monitor for changes to the risk-benefit balance and data integrity during the course of a clinical trial. The purpose is threefold: to protect the welfare of participants in the trial, to protect those patients with the same clinical condition outside the trial, and to ensure that the trial results will be informative. Data monitoring committees (DMCs), sponsors, investigators, and other stakeholders are likely to be familiar with practices for monitoring traditional trials, but some special considerations may apply to pragmatic trials that are conducted in the setting of routine healthcare delivery. For example, data quality and timeliness of reporting can be a concern with trial data collected using electronic health records (EHRs). In addition, it may be difficult to collect follow-up data in ways that would deviate from standard clinical workflows.

In this chapter, we discuss issues related to data monitoring that may pose particular challenges in the context of embedded pragmatic clinical trials (ePCTs). These issues are important to consider before study initiation to ensure that an appropriate data monitoring plan is in place—one that balances the pragmatic nature of a trial with the need to maintain trial safety, validity, and integrity. To illustrate these concepts, we will discuss case studies involving planning for data monitoring from the NIH Collaboratory Trials.

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SECTIONS

CHAPTER SECTIONS

sections

  1. Introduction – Data and Safety Monitoring ARCHIVED
  2. Which PCTs Should Have a DMC? – ARCHIVED
  3. Monitoring Protocol Adherence – ARCHIVED
  4. Data Issues With Monitoring PCTs – ARCHIVED
  5. Monitoring for Serious Adverse Events – ARCHIVED
  6. Futility Assessment V. 2 – ARCHIVED
  7. Futility Assessment – ARCHIVED
  8. Case Study: Planning for Monitoring PCTs – ARCHIVED
  9. Including Stakeholder Perspectives – ARCHIVED
  10. Special Training and Resources for DMCs of Pragmatic Trials – ARCHIVED
  11. Additional Resources – ARCHIVED

Resources

Ellenberg et al. Clin Trials 2015

  • Article exploring considerations for data monitoring committees for pragmatic clinical trials

DMC charter template for PCTs

 


Version History

July 3, 2020: Minor corrections to layout and formatting (changes made by D. Seils).

December 13, 2018: Updated text as part of annual content update (changes made by L. Wing).

Published August 25, 2017

current section :

Introduction – Data and Safety Monitoring ARCHIVED

  1. Introduction – Data and Safety Monitoring ARCHIVED
  2. Which PCTs Should Have a DMC? – ARCHIVED
  3. Monitoring Protocol Adherence – ARCHIVED
  4. Data Issues With Monitoring PCTs – ARCHIVED
  5. Monitoring for Serious Adverse Events – ARCHIVED
  6. Futility Assessment V. 2 – ARCHIVED
  7. Futility Assessment – ARCHIVED
  8. Case Study: Planning for Monitoring PCTs – ARCHIVED
  9. Including Stakeholder Perspectives – ARCHIVED
  10. Special Training and Resources for DMCs of Pragmatic Trials – ARCHIVED
  11. Additional Resources – ARCHIVED

Citation:

Ellenberg S, Sugarman J, Zatzick D. ARCHIVE Data and safety monitoring: Introduction – Data and Safety Monitoring ARCHIVED. In: Rethinking Clinical Trials: A Living Textbook of Pragmatic Clinical Trials. Bethesda, MD: NIH Pragmatic Trials Collaboratory. Available at: https://rethinkingclinicaltrials.org/chapters/ethics-and-regulatory/archive-data-and-safety-monitoring/planning-data-safety-monitoring-introduction/. Updated July 9, 2025. DOI: 10.28929/039.