Improving the Public Interface for Use of Aggregate Data in ClinicalTrials.gov
One of the initial steps to improving clinical trials is to document the current state of clinical trials in order to track changes over time. The ClinicalTrials.gov registry provides information regarding characteristics of past, current, and planned clinical studies. While initially set up to help patients locate clinical studies it has become a source for information on clinical trials, with the registry data available for bulk download; however, researchers could not easily access and analyze these data nor characterize the clinical trial enterprise as a whole prior to CTTI’s creation of the Aggregate Analysis of ClinicalTrial.gov (AACT) database. The 2010 snapshot of the state of clinical trials showed small clinical trials applying varying methodological approaches are most prevalent. Critical medical decisions require more robust and high-quality evidence. With use of AACT, the publicly-accessible ClinicalTrials.gov dataset can be used to analyze studies and characterize the current state of clinical trials, including at the individual specialty level.
The product list contains references that detail the methodology leading to the creation of AACT example analyses using AACT and points to consider when using AACT.
Compliance with Results Reporting at ClinicalTrials.gov, New England Journal of Medicine
*Click here to view the the dataset used for this manuscript. (The first worksheet in this Excel file contains the description and data dictionary; the second worksheet contains the data for the 13,327 studies and all of the variables used in the analysis.)
AACT-Results: The Results dataset extensions for the AACT database
Presented April 2014, American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Joint Summits on Translational Science
Clinical Trials in Nephrology: A Systematic Analysis of ClinicalTrials.gov between 2007-2010
Presented November 2012, ASN Kidney Week 2012
The State of Clinical Trials in Rheumatology: A review of the clinicaltrials.gov dataset
Presented November 2012, at ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting
Osteoporosis-Related Trials in the ClinicalTrials.gov Dataset
Presented October 2012, ASBMR Annual Meeting
*The abstract was selected for poster presentation at ASBMR. However, due to unforeseen circumstances the poster presentation did not occur.
State of Diabetes-Related Trials in the ClinicalTrials.gov Dataset
Presented October 2012, EASD Annual Meeting
The State of Infectious Diseases Clinical Trials: A Systematic Analysis of ClinicalTrials.gov
Presented October 2012, IDSA Annual Meeting
Improving the Impact of Clinical Research: A Systematic Analysis of Kidney Cancer Trials
Presented June 2012, ASCO Annual Meeting
Geographic and Network Analysis of Oncology Trials: Portfolio Assessment of ClinicalTrials.gov
Presented June 2012, ASCO Annual Meeting
Clinical Trials in Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine (PCCSM): A Systematic Analysis
Presented May 2012, ATS Conference
The State of the Oncology Clinical Trials Portfolio: Insights from ClinicalTrials.gov
Presented May 2012, SCT Annual Meeting
Contemporary Clinical Research in Adult Cardiovascular Medicine: A Perspective from ClinicalTrials.gov
Presented May 2012, SCT Annual Meeting
Clinical Trials in Peripheral Vascular Disease: Pipeline and Trial Designs-An Evaluation of the ClinicalTrials.gov Database
Presented March 2012, ACC
Assessment of clinical trials in oncology: An evaluation of 40,969 interventional trials on ClinicalTrials.gov
Presented June 2011, ASCO Annual Meeting
Preparing the Study Dataset from ClinicalTrials.Gov for analysis using disease conditions to re-group trials by clinical specialty
Presented April 2011, ACRT/SCTS/AFMR Joint Annual Meeting
Federal law requires the registration of all non-phase 1 interventional trials of drugs, biologics, or devices that were initiated after September 27, 2007, or before that date but that were still ongoing as of December 26, 2007, have at least one U.S. research site, or are conducted under an investigational-new-drug application or an investigational-device exemption. ClinicalTrials.gov is a registry of human clinical research studies hosted by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, through its National Library of Medicine (NLM), in collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Studies listed in the database are conducted in all 50 US states and in 174 countries. The purpose of ClinicalTrials.gov is to provide a central resource for those seeking information on individual clinical research projects and to increase visibility of human subjects' research. While this database has been useful for patients to identify potential clinical trials in which to participate, researchers were not able to effectively access and analyze the data to learn about the characteristics and effectiveness of clinical trials as a whole. Issues related to data structure, nomenclature, and changes in data collection over time presented challenges to the aggregate analysis and interpretation of these data in general and to the analysis of trials according to clinical specialty in particular.
State of Clinical Trials: “Improving the Public Interface for Use of Aggregate Data in ClinicalTrials.gov” (2010 - Ongoing)
CTTI sought to enhance the utility of ClinicalTrials.gov as a research resource by creating a restructured version of the database that analysts could more easily use to study various aspects of US clinical trials, including the following:
Improving the usability of the data found on ClinicalTrials.gov could enhance its utility as a research resource.
With CTTI’s contribution of AACT, this publicly-accessible dataset will facilitate analysis of studies and permit detailed characterization and analysis of the US clinical trials enterprise as a whole; the methodology for creating specialty datasets may facilitate other efforts to analyze studies by specialty groups.
Detailed methodology on the creation AACT and the re-grouping of clinical studies can be found in the 2012 PLoS ONE publication.
The efforts of this CTTI project resulted in the AACT database, which allows researchers and analysts to perform analyses on a study dataset (a group of several studies) and not just within an individual study. Data from 2010 provided CTTI with a snapshot of the state of clinical trials, which showed that the clinical trial enterprise is dominated by small clinical trials, many of which are not funded by the NIH or industry, and contains significant heterogeneity in methodological approaches that typically do not provide enough robust data to guide critical medical decisions. High-quality evidence is still needed to guide medical decisions; this analysis reinforced the need to evaluate a number of aspects of the clinical trial enterprise.
CTTI also created a method to identify and group the clinical trials by specialty, such as pediatrics, infectious diseases, etc. This helps researchers know which trials have been completed in each medical specialty, or to compare trials between specialties—for example, to compare the average number of participants in cardiovascular trials to those in oncology trials. In addition to the AACT database itself, CTTI created a detailed data dictionary that provides documentation about the source, coding, and history of variables collected in AACT; a high level data dictionary containing a summary of these variables; and guidelines to consider when planning a statistical analysis of the ClinicalTrials.gov database.
The Points to Consider document provides guidelines for investigators to consider when planning a statistical analysis of the ClinicalTrials.gov database. Examples of analyses conducted using the AACT database can be in CTTI publications detailed on our products list.
Role | Name |
Affiliation![]() |
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Project Manager | Sara Calvert | Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative |
Team Member | Karen Chiswell | Duke University |