20 May 2009 is the fourth International Clinical Trials' Day. The Day celebrates the clinical trial as a means of improving health care, health and well being. It provides an opportunity to raise awareness of research, and to mark the partnerships between patients and healthcare practitioners that are vital to high quality, relevant research. The day was established in recognition of the anniversary of a trial by James Lind in which he gave a dozen sailors one of six interventions to treat scurvy, finding that oranges and lemons had the best effects. The European Clinical Research Infrastructures Network (ECRIN) is organising special events around Europe. The Cochrane Collaboration is also marking the day by making available a special collection of information and podcasts on clinical trials and their relationship to systematic reviews. You can follow highlighted links on this page to access these resources.
Clinical trials are both an ouput and an input for Cochrane reviews. The reviews identify areas in which new trials are needed, and incorporate existing and new trials into summaries of the evidence, for people making decisions about health and social care. There are now more than half a million reports of controlled trials in the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and tens of thousands of these have been included in Cochrane Reviews. Cochrane reviews have also led to many new trials, and the researchers responsible for some of these describe what they did and why.
Before a new trial starts it should be registered and The Cochrane Collaboration strongly encourages this. Trial registration will make it easier for people to see what trials are being done and to reduce the risk of publication bias by making it easier to find trials that have not been reported. When trials do report, they should make it easier for readers to assess the totality of the evidence on a topic by including an updated systematic review, but this is rare.
Clinical trials are vital to the evidence base for health and social care. Systematic reviews are vital to the design and interpretation of clinical trials. The Cochrane Collaboration wishes everyone involved in trials, a happy International Clinical Trails' Day 2009 and many happy returns.
Please visit our Special Podcast Collection for International Clinical Trials' Day 2009 to listen to Podcasts about clinical trials and to subscribe to our Podcast feed.
Copyright 2009 The Cochrane Collaboration
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