PhOSCo - the Pharma Open Source Community
Information

Briefly, PhOSCo is an Open Source package for Clinical Trials Electronic Data Capture (EDC). It is free for non-profit research and personal use (which are defined in the Licence document below). For commercial use, there is a very low per trial fee.

Commercial PhOSCo licences start at £4000 Sterling per trial and significant discounts are offered for quantity, up to £350,000 Sterling for an unlimited-use licence.

PhOSCo is one of the longest-lived EDC applications (essentially, it is version 3 of a product that has been widely accepted for the past six or more years), is one of the richest function products around, and probably the lowest cost of all solutions when all factors are considered.

PhOSCo is 100% Java, and requires Java 1.3. It is developed under Linux, and many installations have also been made under various Microsoft operating Systems. It should run on any platform that supports Java.

As of August 6th, 2006, control of PhOSCo is now in the hands of Penguin Trials Ltd., to whome all queries should be directed. You can contact them at www.penguintrials.com.

The Overview PDF File gives a brief introduction to PhOSCo and the reasons why the PhOSCo business model might be interesting.

We don't provide anything except the code. If you want any kind of services or support, such as installation, validation, customisation, deployment, facilities management, or maintenance, you will either have to do it yourself or use Service Providers or subcontractors to do it for you. We do provide a sample User Requirements Specification which laboriously details most of the things that have to be done, and tools to help in validation. Our major Service Provider has been IBM, who have people with PhOSCo skills, but there is no reason why you should not use resources from wherever you wish. This is one of the prime advantages of PhOSCo - for why, see the case study.

The PhOSCo General Licence document (which includes applications forms) covers the detail of the PhOSCo General Licence.

The best way to learn about PhOSCo is to use it.

If you don't have the time, take a look at the User Guides:

Trial Builder User Guide - Draft V1.3 Edition

Trial Recorder User Guide - Draft Second Edition

Trial Monitor User Guide

Trial Server User Guide

The versions here initially may be a little out of date; we are in the process of revising them and will be updating them here as we have them available.

Clinware (a Trade mark of the IBM Corporation) is the predecessor software to PhOSCo. Guillemot Design Ltd are the owners of all intellectual property relating to Clinware. While we are not actively marketing it (as it is obsoleted by PhOSCo) it and maintenance of it is still currently offered by Guillemot Design Ltd by direct negotiation.

We have in the past been asked about our relationship with ATLAS ICS Ltd. Our position is laid out in the following linked document, which states the position as at the middle of 2000: Statement of relationship with ATLAS ICS Ltd.