Opinion: It’s time to make ClinicalTrials.gov a better tool for patients. Here’s how
Millions of people visit ClinicalTrials.gov each year to find a trial that they or a loved one might be eligible to join. It’s the largest public database of clinical studies in the world, listing more than 300,000 trials in the U.S. and around the world.
But as patients, families, and advocacy groups all say, ClinicalTrials.gov is not an easy website to use. Trial designs are confusing to users who aren’t familiar with clinical research. And inclusion and exclusion criteria, as well as outcome measures, often read as impenetrable medical jargon that only researchers can understand.
