Clinical Trials

OSU Resources

Ohio State University Medical Center Clinical Trials Information
The Ohio State University Medical Center is a national leader in the conduct of clinical trials for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases and injuries. These trials have led to some of the most sophisticated new treatments available for patients throughout the world. Hundreds of researchers at OSU are currently involved in nearly 1,000 clinical trials. You can review listings of cancer trials and listings of non-cancer trials that are currently enrolling participants at OSU.    

OSU CCTS: Participate in a Study
The OSU Center for Clinical & Translational Science provides information on how to locate information on locating and participating in clinical trials at OSU and Nationwide Children's Hospital. 

Research Databases

Research Databases provided by the Library can be used to find published results of clinical trials. 

Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials
The CRCT, avaiable through Ovid, is a bibliographic database of definitive controlled trials.  The database contains over 300,000 bibliographic references to controlled trials in health care together with references to clinical trials identified by contributors to the Cochrane Collaboration in MEDLINE and EMBASE.

PubMed
PubMed provides several search options for finding information about clinical trials.  In PubMed, click on the limits tab and scroll down to the "Type of Article" box.  From here, there are several options including Clinical Trial, Randomized Controlled Trial, and Clinical Trial, Phase I - IV.

CINAHL
Search results in CINAHL can be limited to clinical trials by choosing "Clinical Trial" from the "Publication Type" selection box in the Limits section of the search interface.

Government Resources

ClinicalTrials.gov
The National Library of Medicine developed ClinicalTrials. gov to provide users with up-to-date information to help them locate federally and privately supported clinical trials for diseases and conditions. It contains more than 41,000 clinical studies sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, other federal agencies, and private industry. Users can search for clinical trials via the site's search tool.

CRISP (Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects)
A searchable database of federally funded biomedical research projects conducted at universities, hospitals, and other research institutions. The database, maintained by the Office of Extramural Research at the National Institutes of Health, includes projects funded by the NIH, SAMHSA, HRSA, FDA, CDCP, AHRQ, and OASH. Users, including the public, can use the CRISP interface to search for scientific concepts, emerging trends and techniques, or identify specific projects and/or investigators

MedlinePlus Clinical Trials Tutorials
MedlinePlus, a service of the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, has informational tutorials about Clinical Trials. The tutorials include a multimedia presentation with questions, a self-playing tutorial without questions, and a text summary tutorial that displays printer-friendly text.  The tutorials provide an interactive way for patients to learn more about clinical trials and the clinical trials process.

National Eye Institute
The NEI conducts and supports research that helps prevent and treat eye diseases and other disorders of vision. On the NEI site, you can look for a specific NEI study alphabetically by its title, including ongoing and completed studies conducted nationwide. The listings include study results and lists of related journal articles. You can also search for studies by location, age, or recruitment status. The home page also offers a Browse by Condition drop-down list.

National Cancer Institute
The Clinical Trials section of the NCI Web site contains an abundance of information about cancer-related clinical trials. Some features of this site include the searchable NCI clinical trials database, educational materials about clinical trials, and information about NCI-supported clinical trials that are open or closed to new participants.

National Institute of Child Health & Human Development
This site's Clinical Research & Clinical Trials section contains an abundance of basic information about clinical research, and provides users with the general principles behind NICHD clinical research. From the site’s database users can choose to view NICHD-supported clinical trials or all clinical trials. The NICHD provides support for clinical research and clinical research networks that focus on particular diseases or public health issues. Users can select the name of a network or project to learn more about it.

National Institutes of Health Clinical Center
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center serves as the nation's research hospital for conducting clinical research. It also develops diagnostic and therapeutic interventions and works to improve clinical research and lead the response to public health needs. The center's site contains a wealth of information about clinical trials in general and NIH clinical studies. It also contains information aimed at helping patients start a discussion with their physicians about clinical trials. The “Search the Studies” link provides access the searchable NIH database of clinical studies being conducted by the NIH at its center in Bethesda, MD.

National Institute of Mental Health
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is one of the National Institutes of Health. The organization funds research by scientists across the country, as well as those in NIMH studies in their internal research program. The Clinical Trials section on the site allows users to learn more about participating in a study, referring a patient, or learning more about the results of the studies. The Resources for Researchers section contains information for researchers conducting studies, limited access data sets, and more.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Web site contains a good deal of information about FDA-regulated clinical trials including information on clinical practice/clinical trials regulations, laws enforced by the FDA, guidance and notices about good clinical practice and the conduct of clinical trials, proposed regulations and draft guidelines, enforcement information, links to Compliance Program Guidance Manuals, and literature references and training information about good clinical practice.  Users can also submit complaints related to clinical trials through the FDA Web site.

Non-Government Resources

CenterWatch
The CenterWatch Web site contains a list of clinical trials being conducted internationally, and lists therapies that are newly approved by the FDA.  The Patient and General Resources section of the site contains a list of industry-sponsored clinical trials that are actively recruiting patients, background information about clinical trials research, an e-mail notification service, a list of health associations and their contact information, a listing of drugs that have been approved by the FDA, and more. The Industry Professional Resources section contains site identification services to help identify and research investigative sites for clinical research, product and service provider information, career and educational forums, industry news, a database containing completed clinical trials results, and drugs and market intelligence resources.

WebMD: Clinical Trial Services
WebMD collaborates with CenterWatch to offer a list of clinical trials. Users can search for industry-sponsored clinical trials that are currently accepting patients and government-funded clinical research studies being conducted at the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center in Bethesda, MD. The site contains a directory of research centers categorized by therapeutic area or geographic region.

Placement Firms

Clinical Connection
Clinical Connection is a study participant placement firm. Features of their web site include a notification service that lets users know when clinical trials that match their area of interest are available, a searchable clinical trials database, a message board and forum, basic information about clinical trials, such as the phases of clinical trials, insurance information, the benefits of participating, and information for clinics and investigators about the placement services that the company provides.  Free registration is required to view this site.