Trial summary software.

Medical practice is most strongly founded when based on the results of well conducted clinical trials. Clinical trial results normally enter the domain of medical knowledge and practice through their publication in scientific journals. This in itself poses problems of accessibility and selection. The results of this is a slow and selective diffusion of new medical facts which has a consequent cost in human lives and human suffering. In an attempt to shorten this information path initiatives such as the Cochrane collaboration produce and maintain systematic reviews by speciality of the current state of knowledge. The ability to store a representation of a clinical trial in a standard form seems to us to be a necessary condition for the efficient and reproducible preparation of systematic reviews. Furthermore the consequent increased accessibility of research results due to the existence of the summaries would itself be of great use. In this aim a relational database client server system was developed and we publish here the results of our preliminary findings, including the data model, which we feel is an important contribution to the future discussion and development of computer based representations of clinical trial protocols and results and their use in clinical decision making.

[Information system for prescriptors and consumers]. / Un système d'information pour les prescripteurs et les consommateurs.

The efficient dissemination of current research data requires a suitable information system and an ideal intermediary as the liaison between the data source and the targeted users, i.e. prescribers and consumers. Here we present the specifications and possible technical solutions which will enable these data to be efficiently transmitted.