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Trial bank publishing: phase I results
Ida Sim1, Simona Carini, Ben Olasov
1Programs in Biological and Medical Informatics, University of California San Francisco, CA 94143-1211, USA. sim@medicine.ucsf.edu
Studies in Health Technology and Informatics
|September 14, 2004
Summary
Co-publishing randomized clinical trials (RCTs) into a structured knowledge base improves access to evidence. This approach allows computers to deliver crucial RCT findings to clinicians more efficiently.
Area of Science:
- Medical Informatics
- Clinical Research
- Evidence-Based Medicine
Background:
- Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) are vital for clinical practice but accessing their reports is time-consuming.
- Machine-understandable trial banks could streamline the delivery of RCT evidence to clinicians.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate the feasibility of co-publishing RCTs with leading medical journals into a structured electronic knowledge base.
- To establish a proof of concept for an efficient RCT evidence dissemination system.
Main Methods:
- Eligible RCT authors from JAMA and Annals of Internal Medicine (2002-2003) were invited to co-publish in RCT Bank.
- Trial bank staff utilized a web-based tool (Bank-a-Trial) to input manuscript data and gather additional author information.
Main Results:
- Author participation increased significantly from 38% to 76% after the initial example publication.
- Seven diverse RCTs were successfully co-published, with 14 additional trials in progress.
Conclusions:
- Proof of concept achieved for co-publishing RCTs into a structured knowledge base with major journals.
- Future development (Phase II) will focus on enabling direct author submission to RCT Bank.