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New register will track trials funded by the NHS

London Susan Mayor

A recently launched electronic register of clinical trials will provide information on all randomised controlled trials funded wholly by the NHS in England.

The NHS trusts clinical trials register has been set up to comply with the requirements of the UK research governance framework regarding trial registration, and to identify areas being supported by NHS research funding.

It will include details on all trials taking place in England with planned completion dates after 31 March 2003. The register will not include trials that are part of a nationally or regionally funded research programme or those funded by charities or commercial organisations.

The register is being run by Current Controlled Trials, part of the Current Science publishing group, and is based on a three year contract with the Department of Health. It will be freely available to health professionals, patients, and researchers worldwide.

Hélène Faure, editorial project manager at Current Controlled Trials, said: "There is longstanding recognition in the NHS of the vital part that randomised controlled trials can play in improving health care, the importance of encouraging patients to take part in trials, and of tracking trials unambiguously.

"In order to encourage patient recruitment into trials, there is also an increasing need to publicise the existence of trials and to keep the information about individual trials up to date and patient friendly."

She added: "If clinicians, researchers, patients, and the public remain in ignorance about ongoing and unpublished trials or confused about which trial is which, opportunities for collaboration and reducing duplication of research effort will be missed, while publication bias and undeclared over-reporting will lead to misleading conclusions being drawn about the forms of care most likely to benefit patients."

The register currently contains 529 records and will be updated annually by trusts’ regular submissions to the national research register.

All trials included in the register will be assigned an international standard number from a numbering scheme developed by Current Controlled Trials. The numbering system is designed to help users of the register track all publications and reports resulting from each trial.

Eligible trial records will also be flagged with "disease or condition" descriptions at primary (for example, cancer) and secondary (for example, breast) levels. In the current listing 6% of the trials are to do with cancer, 11% involve cardiovascular disease, and 18% are in surgery.

The register is designed to complete the picture of randomised controlled trials being undertaken in England by adding to the three other NHS trial registers (the national, regional, and health technology assessment programmes) that are pooled in Current Controlled Trial’s meta-register of controlled trials.

The register and the meta-register are accessible at www.controlled-trials.com