From ClinicalTrials.gov trial registry to an analysis-ready database of clinical trial results

Background The ClinicalTrials.gov web site provides a convenient interface to look up study results, but it does not allow downloading data in a format that can be readily used for quantitative analyses. Purpose To develop a system that automatically downloads study results from ClinicalTrials.gov and provides an interface to retrieve study results in a spreadsheet format ready for analysis. Methods Sherlock (R) identifies studies by intervention, population, or outcome of interest and in seconds creates an analytic database of study results ready for analyses. The outcome classification algorithms used in Sherlock were validated against a classification by an expert. Conclusions Having a database ready for analysis that can be updated automatically, dramatically extends the utility of the ClinicalTrials.gov trial registry. It increases the speed of comparative research, reduces the need for manual extraction of data, and permits answering a vast array of questions. Clinical Trials 2013; 10: 347-348. http://ctj.sagepub.com