Saturday, February 20, 2016

Many clinical trial results not shared, creating ‘blind spot’

This is probably even worse for stroke since it seems our researchers don't even read old research and update conclusions from previous research. Thus we never know what the current understanding is since we are never told if old research is refuted or confirmed. A great stroke association would keep track of all this research. I doubt that every single stroke researcher out there knows about all previous stroke research. Everything in stroke is 'blind'.
http://www.mdlinx.com/internal-medicine/top-medical-news/article/2016/02/19/9
Less than 40% of the results of clinical trials conducted at leading academic medical centers were shared within two years of completion, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in a new study published in the current issue of the British Medical Journal. “Not only was performance poor, but there was significant variation across the academic medical centers we studied,” said Dr. Nihar Desai, assistant professor of medicine, section of cardiology at Yale School of Medicine and a researcher at the Yale Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation. Desai said randomized clinical trials are the gold standard in terms of testing the efficacy and safety of drugs, devices, and treatment strategies, so disseminating the results is of vital importance. “Researchers also have an ethical responsibility to the patients enrolled in the study to make the results available,” he said. “Providers and patients will never be able to make evidence–based health care decisions if the data is not in the public domain. In addition, future research cannot benefit from what other researchers have already done if results are not reported and/or published in a timely fashion.”

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