A method for the collection, capture, processing, storage and tracking of data for both electronic source health records and for electronic clinical trial purposes by electronically collecting clinical trial data at a clinical trial site, instantly preserving all of the clinical trial data as an electronic source document, archiving the clinical trial data in a trusted data server maintained by a third party, transmitting an acknowledgement upon successful archiving of the clinical trial data, and transmitting the clinical trial data to a clinical trial database only after successful archiving of said clinical trial data. A method for electronically gathering clinical trial data. A method of maintaining discrete data records based upon a single clinical data input.