When new participants are recruited by current participants to become part of a study sample, it is called “snowball sampling.” This is a non-probability sampling technique that can be a practical way to identify and recruit individuals with certain characteristics to...
Check out this fascinating article in Fast Company authored by Christina Farr debating ethical issues in how biobank donors should be compensated if their DNA leads to a blockbuster discoveries by big pharma. One of the case studies examined is donors whose rare...
In March, Apple Inc. introduced ResearchKit, a platform where its users can track personal health data and participate in health studies using their smartphone. Some of the apps include mPower used for Parkinson’s disease, My Heart Counts for cardiovascular disease,...
The NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) has collaborated with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to pilot a program that will help biomedical innovations advance into the marketplace. The I-Corps program provides biomedical researchers with the opportunity to work...
Among the many obstacles drug companies face in bringing a product to market, recruiting clinical trial volunteers has become increasingly difficult, according to a recent article on www.washingtonpost.com by Lenny Bernstein. Bernstein states that more than 10% of...
FierceBiotechIT.com journalist Ryan Mcbride shares that an alliance with close to 70 organizations has been formed to improve how genomic and clinical data are managed and shared. This alliance is a response to how ineffective big data sharing has been for people...