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Launch of the NHS Trusts Clinical Trials Register
September 2003
Current Controlled Trials Ltd is pleased to announce the launch of the NHS Trusts Clinical Trials Register.
The NHS Trusts Clinical Trials Register can be accessed via the metaRegister of Controlled Trials.
Users need to register in order to have access to the metaRegister, but registration and access is free.
The trials in the NHS Trusts Clinical Trials Register are also available in the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN) Register but only a subset of the data items are included in these records.
The background for this new register was detailed in the following two documents in February 2003:
The NHS Trusts Clinical Trials Register is restricted to randomised controlled trials carried out in England, for which
the research costs have been met by the NHS, as part of the NHS R&D funding stream previously known as R&D Budget One.
Inclusion criteria are as follows:
- Trials taking place in England
- With an end date greater than 31 March 2003
- In a location that is the lead centre in the case of a multicentre trial
- That is not part of a nationally or regionally funded programme such as the HTA Programme, or funded by a charity or a commercial company
- For which all research costs have been fully met by the NHS Trust.
Data is sourced from the NHS Trusts' submissions to the National Research Register (NRR) as of 31st
March 2003. As a result, please note that trials may have one of the following statuses:
- Ongoing: the trial has an end date later than 31st May 2003
- Complete: the trial has an end date between 31st
March and 31st May 2003, which is the cut-off date from the NRR March 2003 submission (Issue 2).
Each eligible trial record has been assigned an ISRCTN
that identifies the trial uniquely and ensures that trial details and resulting publications and reports can be tracked unambiguously throughout the trial
lifecycle. For additional information regarding the ISRCTN scheme developed by Current Controlled Trials, please visit http://www.controlled-trials.com/isrctn/isrctn_faqs.asp
Eligible trial records have also been flagged with “disease or condition” descriptions at primary (ie Cancer) and
secondary (ie Breast) levels. The current classification flags are under constant review to ensure that they are appropriate. An initial analysis shows the
following breakdown:
| Cancer |
6% |
| Cardiovascular |
11% |
| Digestive System |
7% |
| Ear, Nose and Throat |
1% |
| Eye Diseases |
1% |
| Haematological Disorders |
1% |
| Infections and Infestations |
2% |
| Injury, Occupational Diseases, Poisoning |
2% |
| Mental and Behavioural Disorders |
5% |
| Musculoskeletal Diseases |
7% |
| Neonatal Diseases |
1% |
| Nervous System Diseases |
3% |
| Not Applicable |
1% |
| Nutritional, Metabolic, Endocrine |
4% |
| Oral Health |
2% |
| Pregnancy and Childbirth |
4% |
| Respiratory |
5% |
| Signs and Symptoms |
11% |
| Skin and Connective Tissue Diseases |
3% |
| Surgery |
18% |
| Urological and Genital Diseases |
5% |
Trial records also include their primary and secondary MeSH coding.
The following two points, however, should be noted:
- Some new trials may not yet have any MeSH coding, as the coding is normally carried out within 3 months of a Trust's submission to the NRR.
- MeSH terms can be searched on using the full text search facility in the metaRegister of Controlled Trials.
For metaRegister of Controlled Trials users:
Please note that duplication of trial records may still occur if you are selecting more than one register.
For NHS Trust data providers:
There are still a number of questions pending regarding some of the trial records currently included. Should you have any
question or comment regarding the data supplied by your Trust, please do not hesitate to contact Current Controlled Trials' editorial office.
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