Traceability and governance
for clinical research
Software architectures for biobanks, sample tracking, clinical research and distributed trust systems.
My role
Software Architect at CRCHUM, the largest hospital research centre affiliated with the Université de Montréal. I oversee a team of 4 technical staff and lead the architecture of biobank management and clinical research systems. My mandate covers architecture design, technical standards definition and strategic interface with IT leadership and executive committees.
Projects
A biobank must track patients, samples, protocols and physical movements without losing the link between data and field reality. The primary need is to centralize and govern information in a complex clinical environment.
The MBK system aims to structure the management of 5,000+ patients and 240,000+ referenced samples, while accounting for physical, operational, data and organizational constraints.
When multiple biobanks or systems need to collaborate, sample identification becomes fragile. The need is to recognize, track and verify a sample beyond a single local system.
Argus explores a complementary traceability layer to reduce identification ambiguities and support greater trust across research environments.
Clinical research teams need a simple tool to track protocols, patients and operational information without multiplying files or parallel tracking systems.
KOIOS served as a minimum viable product to validate an online information system approach for clinical research with CRCHUM leadership.
Publications
S.I. Sion, T. Nguyen-Phan, M. Fortin, A.M. Mes-Masson, K. Zhang (2025). Transforming Biospecimen Management: A Roadmap for Integrated Sample Traceability in the Era of Global Research. Biopreservation and Biobanking. DOI: 10.1177/19475535251366364
S.I. Sion, T. Nguyen-Phan, M. Fortin, A.M. Mes-Masson, K. Zhang (2025). Blockchain-Based Universal Identifiers for Biobank Sample Tracking in Canada. ISBER 2025 Annual Meeting.
Ongoing research
Doctoral thesis: Directed Traceability in Distributed Systems.
ÉTS | Supervisor: Prof. Kaiwen Zhang | Co-supervisor: Prof. Alain April
Mitacs Accelerate Project – Addition of a Software Estimation Capability to the SimSE Educational Software Game (COSMIC).
Mitacs Accelerate (CAD 60,000) – Jan. 2024 – Jan. 2026. Extension (CAD 15,000) – Feb. 2026 – Aug. 2026.
Tools and environments
Contact
For clinical research projects, biobank systems or sample traceability.
Contact me