A Database Programming Intern’s Experience at Medidata NEXT
Medidata NEXT is hosted each year by PROMETRIKA’s technology partner Medidata to help sponsors stay informed on products and solutions for managing clinical trial data. I had the privilege of attending this year’s event in New York City as a PROMETRIKA representative. This was my first-ever industry conference, and Medidata NEXT set the bar high. The venue was in Times Square, and, upon entering the hotel, we were greeted with warm hospitality and a HUGE Medidata NEXT banner. The first event was the introductory keynote, which started with an impactful story of a diabetic mom and her daughter. This introduction served to remind attendees why we do what we do - help people living with medical challenges. The session continued for 2 hours and described the future direction of the Medidata platform.
After the introductory keynote, multiple panels directed to study builders opened up. Attending these were greatly beneficial, as I am currently learning how to be a study builder for PROMETRIKA. Medidata plans on changing the way EDCs are created with their new product called Designer. They plan on phasing out the current way of building studies, known as Rave Architect, with this new tool. I was shown multiple demos of Designer, which gave me a good idea about its functionality and design. Its design is very similar to Rave EDC and, from what I saw, it can easily create a schedule of events and edit checks/visibility rules.
Another remarkable tool that Medidata developed is Detect. Medidata seems very eager to incorporate AI into their set of tools. Detect allows data managers to automate data review and reconciliation using AI. Currently, study builders use programmed edit checks in Rave Architect to automate some aspects of data review. Study builders can create programmed edit checks; however, they can’t create unique listings of data. The prospect of data listing compilation as part of the Medidata platform is a great feature, in my opinion. From what Medidata is describing, Detect promises to be a great product that can help with cleaning patient data. Designer and Detect are two tools PROMETRIKA will be able to leverage to speed data review and ultimately get better treatments to patients in the future.
At the conference, I learned a lot about Medidata’s present and future services. As an intern with only 1.5 years of industry experience, I was not aware of everything that Medidata had to offer. I attended a panel on Medidata’s targeted source document verification (TSDV) module, which was very informative for a study builder. In a recent project, one of my programmed reports was being affected by the TSDV module, but without knowledge of how trouble shoot TSDV, I was unable to correct the problem. At the conference, I learned that a simple fix to the TSDV tier system was needed. Medidata NEXT showed me what the Medidata platform can do today, and where the Medidata platform is going in the future. The conference was a great experience and I want to thank PROMETRIKA for allowing me to attend.
Nael Al-Assaad, Intern, Database Programming and Data Management, PROMETRIKA, LLC, has 1.5 years of EDC programming and data management experience. Nael leads Cloud Administration and is training on database builds. He works in Rave Architect to create forms, dynamics, matrices, and derivations. Nael is knowledgeable about Business Objects 4 (BO4). He creates complex BO4 reports that have been requested by sponsors and uses BO4 to clean study data. To learn more about PROMETRIKA’s internship program, click here.
