In the latest issue of the Bulletin of The Royal College of Surgeons of England, surgeons who have run clinical trials say “surgeons have a professional and ethical duty to ensure trial results are made available.” The surgeons point out that previous efforts to make registration and reporting of clinical trials a requirement, like the recommendations introduced by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors in 2005 and a US law in 2007, have been “widely ignored owing to inadequate or absent enforcement.” In a study published in The BMJ in 2014, the authors of the editorial showed that the results of a third of surgery clinical trials have not been published.
They suggest practical steps for different stakeholders to promote best practice. Funders could make trial reporting and data sharing a condition of support, ethics committees and academic journals should take a greater role in monitoring trial registration and reporting, and professional bodies could provide more guidance for trialists. They also say it is vital that patients are involved to promote transparency.
Read their editorial and share it on Facebook and Twitter.