From ClinicalTrials.gov trial registry to an analysis-ready database of clinical trial results. (April 2013) - Cepeda, M Soledad
Background: TheClinicalTrials.gov web site provides a convenient interface to look up study results, but it does not allow downloading data in a format that can be readily used for quantitative analyses. Purpose: To develop a system that automatically downloads study results fromClinicalTrials.gov and provides an interface to retrieve study results in a spreadsheet format ready for analysis. Methods: Sherlock ® identifies studies by intervention, population, or outcome of interest and in seconds creates an analytic database of study results ready for analyses. The outcome classification algorithms used in Sherlock were validated against a classification by an expert. Conclusions: Having a database ready for analysis that can be updated automatically, dramatically extends the utility of theClinicalTrials.gov trial registry. It increases the speed of comparative research, reduces the need for manual extraction of data, and permits answering a vast array of questions.