Trial summary software

Medical practice is most strongly founded when based on the results of well conducted clinical trials. Clinical trial results normally enter the domai n of medical knowledge and practice through their publication in scientific journals. This in itself poses problems of accessibility and selection. Th e results of this is a slow and selective diffusion of new medical facts wh ich has a consequent cost in human lives and human suffering. In an attempt to shorten this information path initiatives such as the Cochrane collabor ation produce and maintain systematic reviews by speciality of the current state of knowledge. The ability to store a representation of a clinical tri al in a standard form seems to us to be a necessary condition for the effic ient and reproducible preparation of systematic reviews. Furthermore the co nsequent increased accessibility of research results due to the existence o f the summaries would itself be of great use. In this aim a relational data base client server system was developed and vile publish here the results o f our preliminary findings, including the data model, which we feel is an i mportant contribution to the future discussion and development of computer based representations of clinical trial protocols and results and their use in clinical decision making. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All ri ghts reserved.