Poor compliance with reporting research results – we know it’s a problem … how do we fix it?

Abstract

SummaryIf patients knew that most results from clinical research were not shared as completely or as quickly as they should be, how many patients would volunteer for research studies?If patients knew this problem was worse for government-funded research than pharmaceutical industry-funded research, how many would want their tax dollars allocated to government-funded research?We may live in an era of evidence-based medicine, but when the accessible evidence base is being built so incompletely and slowly, patients and the medical research community clearly have a problem. Indeed, despite the ethical, scientific, and potentially, legal, responsibilities researchers have to report results in a timely manner… they are struggling to do so. And, although much attention has focused on results reporting for industry-funded research, it appears that the situation for non-industry-funded research is similar or far worse. Nobody appears to occupy the moral high ground when it comes to reporting results, but all funders and researchers have a moral duty to do so. Quite simply, results don't report themselves. We propose that professional medical writers (not ghostwriters) could help ensure results are reported in a complete, timely, and ethical manner. Readers are encouraged to evaluate the evidence summarized below and to suggest other potential solutions to the results reporting problem. The ultimate beneficiary of timely communication of research results will be patients.

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