May 10, 2016

The availability of scientific data and transparency about biomedical research are more important than ever. In 2015, the National Institutes of Health and the U.K.-based Wellcome Trust created an international competition to reward innovative ideas to advance "open science." One team of six announced as finalists for the Open Science Prize includes an OHSU School of Medicine faculty member.

Erick Turner, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry and physician, VA Portland Health Care System, is working as a private citizen with a team from the United Kingdom representing Open Knowledge International and University of Oxford. Their project – OpenTrialsFDA – aims to enable better access to drug approval packages submitted to and made available by the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Turner is a former FDA clinical reviewer. Read more about OpenTrialsFDA.

The six team finalists, announced at the Health Datapalooza Conference in Washington, D.C., were selected out of 96 multinational, interdisciplinary teams representing 450 innovators from 45 countries. Each winning team received $80,000 to develop their prototypes and will compete for the Open Science Prize of $230,000. Additional funding is provided by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

More

OHSU doc, frustrated by clunky FDA database, wins grant to make it more accessible