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Oxford University Hospitals commits to AllTrials

22/08/2014
This article is more than nine years old.

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust has pledged its support for increased transparency in medical research by supporting the AllTrials campaign.

Oxford University Hospitals has signed the campaign pledge and commits to the principles that all clinical trials should be registered and the results should be published.

The Trust supports a growing portfolio of more than 1,300 patient-centred studies and trials.

The Oxford University Hospitals Director of Research and Development, Professor Keith Channon, said: "Transparency, openness and the sharing of knowledge are key principles in furthering research and in translating this new scientific understanding into patient benefit. We are underlining this by supporting the AllTrials campaign. We have also outlined further practical steps to help us support these principles."

As part of the AllTrials commitment, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Oxford Biomedical Research Centre and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)  Biomedical Research Unit (both hosted by Oxford University Hospitals and run in partnership with the University of Oxford) will review their portfolios to continue to ensure the results from all clinical trials are published.

In addition, both programmes will further improve the information available to patients about the individual trials and studies they support.

Oxford Biomedical Research Unit director Professor Andrew Carr added: "We are committed to ensuring our patients, who play a vital role in helping us pioneer new treatments, are fully involved and engaged in our work at every stage."

Oxford Biomedical Research Centre's Director of Patient Involvement, Sophie Petit-Zeman, said: "In signing AllTrials we want to commit to action rather than simply endorse the campaign as an ideal.

"Patients want the research community to be better at being clear about what it is doing and at reporting results. This is arguably nowhere more important that in clinical trials, on which medical practice is based.

"We are launching a study to look back at how good we have been at publishing results of our trials and identify how best to ensure the results of all current and future studies are published."

She added: "We are also committed to further improving the information that we provide about trials so that it is truly accessible to non-scientists and not written in technical language."

AllTrials is an initiative of Bad Science, BMJ, Centre for Evidence-based Medicine, Cochrane Collaboration, James Lind Initiative, PLOS and Sense About Science. The AllTrials campaign has been signed by 79,510 people and 501 organisations.

Ian Bushfield, Campaigns Support Officer at Sense About Science, one of the founding organisations of AllTrials said: "It's great news that Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust has joined AllTrials and that it’s carrying out work to help support their continued commitment to transparency. We hope that lots of other organisations will follow their lead and do the same."