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The Factom community provides financial support to parties innovating on top of the Factom Protocol through a quarterly Factom grant round. Triall successfully participated in the latest grant round and was awarded funding to expand its eTMF solution with a functionality that enables users to assign DIDs to trial-related essential documents registered on the Factom® blockchain. As the eTMF is built on top of the Alfresco ECM system, this will become a standard plug-in for Alfresco users. As such, Triall will make this integration available as an Open Source (LGPL) for use by the community, further broadening the appeal of the Factom Protocol.

About DIDs

DIDs are a new type of identifier for verifiable, “self-sovereign” digital identity. DIDs can be used to assign a digital identity with a pointer (URL) to any device, person, organization or object (document, photo, form, data) and are independent from any centralized registry, identity provider, or certificate authority.

DIDs in clinical trials

Assigning DIDs to trial-related documents will enable external parties to access these objects by using the DID as the link to the object through an abstraction layer, without the need to know where the object is stored. Even if the document is moved, the DID will point to the correct location. Effective implementation of DIDs would greatly reduce the amount of time and resources currently being spend on the monitoring of clinical trial documents and processes, where monitors are sent to research sites (academic hospitals or dedicated research centers) to check documentation on site, and would significantly reduce duplication of documents, thereby reducing the likelihood of recordkeeping failures and privacy breaches. DIDs, thus, allow for a secure means of document exchange where the authenticity of the corresponding document can be assured.

Useful links

You may find the original grant application here.

More info on DIDs can be found here.