Blur™
De-Identify. De-Risk. Deliver.
Blur is a standalone SaaS platform for de-identifying patient information from clinical trials. The platform uses a combination of dedicated role assignments, natural language processing, and risk simulations to ensure privacy, regulatory compliance, and high data usability. Blur removes risk by providing defensible privacy standards.
Protect patient privacy and ensure your trial meets compliance requirements. Request your Blur demo today!
What is Blur?
Instem built Blur in collaboration with enterprise pharmaceutical sponsors to serve as an efficient solution for scaling anonymization and quantitative risk assessment. Blur offers a suite of advanced tools for de-identifying patient information, all accessible through a single, user-friendly interface. The safeguarding of patient information in clinical trials is crucial for maintaining individual privacy, ensuring data integrity, and adhering to strict regulatory requirements. Without robust and traceable de-identification measures, researchers risk regulatory penalties and loss of trust, which can jeopardize the success of a clinical trial.
The complexity of regulatory requirements and the volume of data collected can make traditional approaches to de-identification slow and prone to costly errors. Furthermore, medical data is under constant threat from increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. Blur surpasses the limitations of conventional de-identification approaches and combats threats by providing automated and compliant solutions that reduce risk, save time, and enhance data usability.
Key Benefits of Blur
Boosts Efficiency
Blur provides a centralized platform for concurrent de-identification, allowing users to manage all tasks from a single interface and reduce the time spent switching between tools.
Saves Time
Blur automates manual tasks, such as detecting and redacting patient health information (PHI), accelerating document preparation, and reducing the time required for regulatory submissions.
Removes Risk
Blur utilizes automation and natural language processing to facilitate comprehensive coverage for de-identification, making sure that your most sensitive information is protected. Robust user logs and documentation promote easy auditability and legal defensibility.
Improves Compliance
Blur delivers compatibility with global regulatory standards, including Health Canada, US FDA, EMA, EU CTR, and GDPR, to ensure each trial meets strict privacy laws.
Maintain Data Usability
Blur allows users to transform data into other values and forms. This maintains data usability without revealing confidential personal information.
Simplified Collaboration
Blur provides role assignment, simplifying task distribution among team members and ensuring clear accountability.
Core Features/Modules
Blur goes beyond simple de-identification, providing researchers with an advanced toolkit of modules for privacy and compliance.
Blur Data
Efficiently removes or masks PHI in clinical datasets, ensuring HIPAA, GDPR, and global regulatory compliance, allowing researchers to achieve efficient de-identification and peace of mind.
Blur Risk
Calculates re-identification risk using simulation-based scoring to help users choose the safest, most data-preserving anonymization methods. Blur Risk performs one million simulations in ten minutes, enabling quick decisions that balance privacy with data utility.
Blur CSR
Leveraging natural language processing, Blur anonymizes Clinical Study Reports (CSRs) for submission under EMA Policy 0070 and Health Canada PRCI, including text, tables, and embedded images. This reduces the complexity and stress typically associated with regulatory submissions.
Why Choose Blur?
Blur provides researchers with true peace of mind by ensuring that every detail of data de-identification is covered. Its modular toolkit goes beyond basic compliance, helping teams improve efficiency and reduce trial delays.
Clinical trials carry significant risk, and growing concerns over data privacy and regulatory scrutiny can lead to costly setbacks. Delays caused by non-compliance or lack of audit readiness can slow the path to market for life-saving therapies and result in rapidly escalating expenses.
Blur is designed for non-programmers, allowing seamless integration into existing workflows with minimal training. Its suite of modules not only protects sensitive data but also transforms it into submission-ready reports, saving time and mitigating risk in regulatory submissions. Blur is the optimal platform for protecting patients and companies, ensuring compliance, and accelerating clinical trials.
Customer Success Stories
This project faced several challenges that the client was able to easily overcome with help from Instem:
Quantity of Variables
Quantity of Variables: This project consisted of 9 data sets, more than half of which contained 10,000+ variables, totaling 60,000+ variables to inspect. To put this in perspective, Instem typically sees a maximum of 1,800 variables when performing a single data de-identification project.
Legacy Format
The client was storing this data in a legacy format created by their proprietary system. When beginning the anonymization process, it was initially difficult to determine where the demographic data was housed in this format.
The Solution
Instem worked with the client to identify and clean up excess data, inspect variables, and anonymize data. Instem, utilizing Blur, was able to completely anonymize the data without problem.
Instem typically spends one to two weeks on de-identification projects. Due to the large number of variables and cleanup required in this project, the timeline was extended to one month.
The Results
The client now has anonymized data that is ready for academic sharing, thanks to Blur. They can also now share this data with other researchers, clinical research data sharing platforms, or fulfill retroactive regulatory requests.
How It Works
Blur provides a compliant de-identification platform for safeguarding patient privacy and ensuring regulatory compliance. With a flexible, modular design, sponsors can customize the platform to optimize clinical trial transparency workflows.
Data Integration
Blur enables the de-identification of data across different formats, including CSRs imported using Blur CSR.
Assign Roles
Assign roles such as De-Identifier, Reviewer, or Inspector, and tune settings to match the requirements of specific regulators.
De-identification
Blur CSR ML uses natural language processing to de-identify and anonymize data and documents, and has the capability for bulk de-identification and anonymization projects.
Risk Assessment
Blur Risk enables rapid risk identification to optimize de-identification strategies.
Log Data
Securely store all changes and user activity logs for audit readiness.
Generate Reports
Export clean, anonymized, and audit-ready files for regulatory submission with Blur CSR.
Frequently Asked Questions
Many clients feel that Blur’s capabilities are too good to be true. We’ve compiled the most common questions to help you see exactly how it delivers.
Does Blur require programming skills to use?
No. Blur is designed for non-programmers with an intuitive interface and guided workflows.
What kind of support is available?
Clients have access to expert support through Instem’s Clinical Trial Transparency services.
How is Blur deployed?
Blur is a cloud-based SaaS platform, meaning there’s no installation required. Users can securely access it from their work network.
Can multiple team members work on the same project?
Yes. Blur supports concurrent workflows with role-based permissions.
Get a Free Demo Today
Remove the stress, risk, and uncertainty of traditional de-identification methods and embrace a comprehensive, modern approach with Blur. Ensure compliance, protect patient privacy, and streamline your clinical trial workflows from one powerful platform.
Request your Blur demo today.