Oral presentation:
US Patent documents on the Internet: an unexplored source of unpublished clinical trials
Wootton J. C.
Introduction: The US patent literature is a valuable source of information and research data relevant to the Cochrane Collaboration. Many patent publications contain detailed historical reviews, case reports, clinical trials, pilot studies and basic biological research of relevance to meta-analytical studies.
Objective: To describe:
The role of the Internet in making this resource available
How to perform searches
The relevance to the new Cochrane Field (application stage) of Complementary Medicine
General relevance to the Cochrane collection of clinical trials.
Results: Examples of searches and unpublished clinical trials will be demonstrated.
Discussion: Much of the scientific, efficacy and safety data necessary to obtain a patent is unpublished elsewhere. The US Patents literature is a potential valuable resource for the Cochrane Collaboration, as yet not fully explored.
