Shire Plc. has released its consumer-focused clinical trial results web site. You can see it by clicking here.
The site is devoted to completed and discontinued clinical trials that can also be found on the clinicaltrials.gov or clinicalstudyresults.org web sites. No information on future or ongoing trials are included.
My initial reaction to the site is very favorable. The design is clean, uncluttered and to the point, just what's needed by the average consumer.
Since this is Shire's first attempt at such a site, a few suggestions are in order:
1. The search screen has four pull-down list boxes for Drug Name, Generic Name, Threapeutic Area and Disease State. Since it's possible to select an item from each of these lists, it is very likely that consumers will create combinations that don't make any sense. In such cases, the system will correctly return the message: "0 records found" and leave the consumer confused, dissatisfied or both. So, either make the pull-down lists context sensitive or allow them to search on one list at a time. A small instruction box next to the search function would also help. And, it would also be nice to have a "reset" button in case a consumer wishes to revise their search selections.
2. Clicking the "View Details" link on a search hit opens a study details screen. The most important part of this screen shows the study summary and gives a link to a PDF file giving a detailed exposition of the study. Unfortunately, the study summary simply repeats what the trial was about without giving any of the efficacy or safety results. For that, you have to open the PDF file and search within that for the results section. In addition, the results (once found) are in typical scientific jargon. So, two suggestions are in order: a. provide a plain-language study summary on the Details screen and b. provide a longer plain-language abstract of the whole study via a second link also on the Details screen. (N.B. - Yes, there are legal implications here, but not any that legal and regulatory counsel can't deal with.)
3. The Main Menu also provides a link to a Glossary of relevant terms. The Glossary itself is very nicely done. To make it more effective, it is suggested that a link from each trial Detail screen open a window showing a subset of the glossary relevant to the therapeutic area to which the drug belongs. This would be easy to do by simply adding another field to the Glossary database signifying the therapeutic area.
On the whole, congratulations to Shire for providing a simple but effective tool to consumers.
I’m writing this on the plane to New York from Barcelona having just attended the 2008 DIA Euromeeting. As a veteran of many DIA annual meetings in the USA, I must admit that this year’s Euromeeting was like a breath of fresh air. A key reason for this may be the calculated risk that the meeting planners took by redesigning the program around themes and sessions.
