UpSMART: five years of digital innovation in cancer clinical research—achievements, challenges, and recommendations

UpSMART, a research programme involving 24 European cancer centres, aimed to promote digital innovation in early-phase clinical research addressing challenges in recruitment, data collection and analysis. Several open-source digital healthcare products (DHPs) were developed through UpSMART, including eTARGET and trialFinder for trial matching, and PROACT 2.0 for patient-reported data. Lessons learned highlight the importance of multidisciplinary teams, sustainable funding and deployment, and engagement with the research community to maximise impact.