Patent ID: 8532931

Claim:
A computer for calculating a sample size for a first clinical trial of a first treatment, the computer comprising: a memory storage; a network connection device communicatively coupled with the communications network; and a processing device coupled to the memory storage, wherein the processing device is operative for: reading, via the network connection device coupled with the communications network, data from a database of a first computer connected to the communications network, wherein the data comprises a plurality of survival curves from clinical trials; calculating a similarity between the first clinical trial and a clinical trial of each survival curve from the plurality of survival curves, wherein a similarity between clinical trials is calculated based on similarities in a disease of populations of clinical trials, similarities in treatments received by populations of the clinical trials and similarities in control groups of the clinical trials; selecting from the database of the first computer a second survival curve from a second clinical trial for a second treatment, wherein the second clinical trial was calculated to have a highest similarity to the first clinical trial from the set of clinical trials of the plurality of survival curves; reading, via the network connection device coupled with the communications network, the second survival curve that was selected from the database of the first computer; automatically selecting from about five points to about six points on the second survival curve, wherein all of the points that were selected correspond to a beginning of a calendar month; storing x-y coordinates for each of the points that were selected; automatically generating a hazard curve based on the x-y coordinates that were stored, wherein the hazard curve is a step function and wherein a value of the step function between a first time point tl and a second time point t 2 is calculated using the formula: value=log(( S ( t 2)− S ( t 1))/ S ( t 1))/( t 2− t 1) wherein function S(t) provides a value of the second survival curve at a given time point; smoothing the hazard curve, wherein smoothing comprises selecting multiple points in the hazard curve that correspond to noise, deleting the multiple points in the hazard curve that were selected, and re-rendering the hazard curve to reflect the multiple points that were deleted; and calculating a sample size for the first clinical trial using a Markov model based on the hazard curve, wherein the Markov model takes the following data into account: efficacy of the first treatment and an amount of a medication taken by patients of the first treatment.