A new system has been devised by two clinicians that use blockchain which could be widely and readily used to audit and confirm the reliability of scientific studies.

This system would prevent alteration of clinical trial documents which would make new drugs look more effective than they are now. By adding a blockchain system, it provides a method for establishing the existence of a document at a particular time that can be independently verified by any interested party.

Dr. Irving said: "Trust in scientific research has been diminished by evidence that some data is being manipulated. The declaration of Helsinki states that every clinical trial must be registered in a publicly accessible database before recruitment of the first subject. Yet despite the creation of numerous trial registries, problems, such as differences between pre-specified and reported outcomes, persist."

In their paper, it was stated that if a block of data is recorded on a blockchain ledger it is extremely difficult to change or remove it. Reporting in F1000Research, the doctors said that, “When someone wishes to add to it, participants in the network – all of whom have copies of the existing blockchain – run algorithms to evaluate and verify the proposed action.”

Explaining about the method of the research, the doctors used publically available documentation from a recently reported randomized control trial. After which a study protocol was prepared based on its pre-specified endpoints and planned analyses.

Later, the doctors used encryption techniques on bitcoin to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, and operate independently of a central bank. Since blockchain is a decentralized database of bitcoin transactions which can be publicly recorded, timestamped and stored across a large, international network of computers, the doctors drew attention and interest to use it in their research.

In the results of the trail research, doctors found that, the method allows anyone to verify the exact wording and existence of a protocol at a given point in time. Also it has the potential to support automatic, extremely robust verification of pre-specified and reported outcomes. Thus they concluded that, the evidence should increase trust and diminish suspicion in reported data.

Greg Irving of the University of Cambridge and John Holden, a family doctor presented this paper which was approved by two referees one from Fânzeres Family Health Unit, Gondomar, Portugal and the other from Department for Continuing Education, University of Oxford, U.K..