Trial registers: protecting patients, advancing trust

May 19 was International Clinical Trials Day. The goal was to generate awareness among the public about the value of clinical research, and clinical trials in particular. The Lancet supports this endeavour unreservedly. Clinical trial registration: transparency is the watchwordAll parties associated in clinical trials—patients, doctors, scientists, industry—share a common desire for a vigorous clinical research enterprise that brings innovations to patients as quickly as possible. However, recent scandals in the UK1 and elsewhere2,3 have diminished public trust in the clinical research industry. This distrust is worrisome because industry funds an increasing proportion of clinical trials,4 and distrust might result in lower enrolment in trials and slower innovation. Full-Text PDF Trial summaries on results databases and journal publicationThe International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) has encouraged greater transparency in clinical trials through an important type of disclosure: the public registration of summary protocols at the initiation of “all trials whose primary purpose is to affect clinical practice (phase III trials).”1 Indeed, ICMJE now requires registration of such trials as a condition of their subsequent consideration for publication. Full-Text PDF