EMA/INS/GCP/856758/2018 (“Guideline on the content, management and archiving of the clinical trial master file (paper and/or electronic)” Section 2: » A TMF is the collection of essential documents that is used by sponsors, CROs and investigators/institutions for the management of the trial and by monitors, auditors and inspectors to review and verify whether the sponsor and the investigators/institutions have conducted the trial in line with the applicable regulatory requirements and the principles and standards of GCP. «
Accordingly, the Essential Documentation of a trial (the Trial Master File) is a Documentation System with at least two parts:
i) the Trial Master File (TMF) kept by the sponsor and
ii) the Investigator Site/Study File (ISF) kept by the investigator.
On several accounts, these two parts overlap and are complementary – see EMA/INS/GCP/856758/2018 Section 5.2: » Some copies of documents in the TMF do not replace the original and therefore do not require certification (e.g. original wet-ink signed contracts held at the legal departments of the sponsor and the investigator/institutions and copies in the sponsor and investigator/institution TMF; original delegation log in investigator/institution TMF and copy in sponsor TMF). The creation of such copies for a TMF should be defined in a written procedure. The procedure should ensure that the copy is of sufficient quality for the intended purpose «
On the other hand, although they overlap, the ISF contains information that ought not to be kept in the TMF, whereas the TMF may contain information that is of little – if any – use to the investigator.
This segregation is an essential feature of the management of the essential trial documentation in accordance with ICH E6 GCP (Art. 8.2-8.4), the EU Clinical Trial Directive, the EU Clinical Trials Regulation 536/2014 (Recital 52 and Art. 57-58), EMA/INS/GCP/636736/2012 , EMA/15975/2016, and EMA/INS/GCP/856758/2018 (“Guideline on the content, management and archiving of the clinical trial master file (paper and/or electronic)” – Dec.2018) Art 3.1: « … In organising the TMFs, it is essential to segregate some documents that are generated or held by the sponsor only, from those that are generated or held by the investigator only, and vice versa »
Segregation serves securing confidentiality of the information that links the trial data controlled and processed by the sponsor with the patient’s identity that it is to be kept confidentially by the investigator (e.g. in the Subject Identification Code Log, the signed Informed Consent forms, and the medical source files). In this way, data are “pseudonymised” at the level of the investigator, but become “anonymous” at the level of the sponsor unless access to the subject identification information would be taken.
The subject identification information is to be kept securely and confidentially in the ISF; access to this information by the sponsor ought to be restricted and controlled.
On-trial, access to the Subject Identification Information in the ISF is a mandatory aspect of the QC-verification of data and compliance.
Off-trial, conditional access to this information should be possible for QA/QC inspection of GCP-compliant conduct, analysis, and reporting of the trial.
Other access is not permissible (particularly if it could affect data processing) since it would violate the rulings on data protection, but cannot be entirely excluded. Although not intended, such undue access to subject identification information is ‘possible’; therefore, trial subject data remain “pseudonymised” also at the level of the sponsor.
More restrictive rulings on access to the Subject Identification Information might help keeping trial data “anonymous”; this could be achieved by imposing prohibitive rulings on access to the identification information once the database is closed; in such case, the information could only be accessed after database closure by sponsor-independent inspectors and not by sponsor-based or sponsor-assigned auditors.
Segregation of the TMF and ISF and their orderly post-study archiving are essential quality marks in Good Documentation Practices. Considering the very long time such information needs to be orderly archived by sponsor and investigator (see next), this results in complex logistic challenges to the investigator for which the sponsor can provide little remedy (see next).
{19.May.2018 – Update: 09.Sep.2019 | ACPS-CdM}.