Who Are We?

By C. Michael Gibson, M.S. M.D.

The Story of Clinical Trial Results

I lived in San Francisco at the height and the epicenter of the "dot com" boom in 2000.  The excitement regarding the potential to connect to millions of people around the world was palpable.  Most people were using capital to make capital.  But I had my eye on a different kind of capital.  For the first time the internet provided both open and immediate access to intellectual capital. I truly believe that this kind of access to information is what accelerates both change and future discovery.

Mail had been supplanted by FedEx, and the instantaneous delivery of email was in turn replacing FedEx.  In the clinical trials world, static 35 mm slides which were prepared days to weeks in advance before a talk were being replaced by on line presentations that could be edited and updated just before a talk. An unmet need arose: there was no central repository of Clinical Trial Results that anyone could access at anytime.  Clinical Trial Results was conceived.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created the first PC in their parents garage, Jeff Bezos sat in the backseat of his car writing the business plan for amazon.com, and two college kids sat in their dorm room to create Google.  I sat in my daughter's room (which doubled as a home office in our apartment in San Francisco) at nights creating the site.  While our newborn Grace slept, Clinical Trial Results was incubating in the same room!

Then came the day Clinical Trial Results was born and "went live".  I was mesmerized as people logged onto the site from around the world.  By word of mouth and email, the site had about 10,000 hits in its first 24 hours! 

Access, connection, equality, community, speed.  This was the spirit of the internet that I was trying to capture and bring to the Clinical Trials world. I had achieved it and the sense of exhilaration I experienced that first day is still hard to put in words.

Battles During Adolescence

As in any relentless epic struggle to change things, there were battles.  As you might imagine, the pharmaceutical and medical device industry did not wholeheartedly embrace an independent site that did not necessarily conform to their marketing messages.  The community of Healthcare providers, however, did resonate to a site that provided them with both data as well as independent commentary.  I firmly believe that the public vetting of Clinical Trial Results (both positive and negative) is critical and provides a valuable service to the community at large. This process helps assure the integrity of trial data as well as its interpretation. We aim to provide full and transparent disclosure as part of this process.

The Peak at Present

As in so many odysseys, there is the return home, and this is Boston for me.  Since returning to Boston, the site has continued to mature and has moved from providing Powerpoint content to leading the field in providing video, podcasts, Palm downloads and risk calculators. This Week In Cardiology is the World's First Weekly TV show for Cardiologists.  My close friend and trialist Dr. Chris Cannon has joined me on the show and we are having a great time with this new medium and new way of connecting with all of you out there.

I am particularly proud of WikiDoc, the World's First Medical Wiki, which is a free, living textbook of medicine that the entire community contributes to and edits.  I first learned about this internet community concept from Friedman's book "The World is Flat."  I see this as an important way forward to share medical information and there are now Russian, Polish, Spanish and Romanian speaking communities on the site.

The Future

Pre-medical students such as my son now grow up with and contribute to the WikiDoc section of the site, and they will use the site in other ways once they become health care providers. "My dad used it, and so do I now."

Our Mission Statement

Clinical Trial Results is an organization of clinical trial researchers whose goal is to objectively and rapidly disseminate clinical trial results to physicians & other health care professionals so that they in turn can educate their colleagues and patients with the ultimate goal of accelerating the delivery of newer treatments.

Belief and Belonging

This is a site by Clinical Researchers for Clinical Researchers. The site is truly a "grassroots effort" with little or no advertising. Like other runaway success stories, word of mouth is more powerful than advertising (think Google). People believe in the site and its spirit, and their contributions to the site also give them a sense of belonging to the site. By sharing your work with others, you have a sense of belonging to a community that is larger than yourself.  A sense of trust, relevance, community and vision has led to the success of the site.  As a result, the site has now become the leading provider of free medical media content for medical professionals in cardiovascular disease around the world.

Why Do People Feel Better About Clinical Trial Results than other Sites?

There are a variety of features that differentiate Clinical Trial Results from other sites that have led Cardiologists and health care providers to prefer our site.

1. Clinical Trial Results provides modifiable slides, not someone else's unmodifiable JPEG message

Powerpoint presentations have become the tool of choice among medical educators.  Many speakers like to make the slides "their own".  To this end, Clinical Trial Results provides for the most part, slides that are modifiable Powerpoint slides, and not JPEG images of Powerpoint slides as are found on other sites.  The site purposefully allows users to add their logo, reconfigure the layout of data, edit the conclusions, add to the limitations to make the slides their own.  This allows users to make it their talk and not the talk of a Pharmaceutical Company, Device Manufacturer, Medical Education Company, or Key Opinion Leader.

2. "A picture is worth a thousand words".  

As I have often said, cardiologists are "visual animals".  Stories are so often better told through the use of pictures in addition to words.  In addition, cardiologists, may not have the time or inclination to read lots of text as they are browsing.  For this reason, the slides emphasize graphs and visuals rather than text and tables.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, then moving pictures (animated gifs) and videos are invaluable, and the site continues to add this type of content.

3. This Week In Cardiology: The First TV Show for Cardiologists

I long wanted to create a TV show for cardiologists so that they could quickly catch up on the news from the week. Early in the fall of 2006, This Week in Cardiology was launched.  This has now rapidly become one of the most popular areas on the site.

4. The World's First Medical Wiki: WikiDoc

WikiDoc is the world's first medical wiki which is a living textbook of medicine that everyone can edit and contribute to. It is similar to www.wikipedia.org, but is confined to medical topics. Hundreds of authors are contributing at present. This continues to build a sense of community on the site. Pre medical students such as my son now grow up with the site, and they will use it once they become health care providers. "My dad used it and so do I now."

5. "I feel the need, the need for speed"

At the time of national and international meetings, we pride ourselves on posting content as soon as possible after it has been presented.

6. A Great Search Engine at the Top Left, Organization, and Ease of Navigation

The name is simple and so is the site.  When asked why his shows like Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch began with a song outlining the show's premise, Sherwood Schwartz said "Because the confused do not laugh". The confused won't use a website or its slides either.

The Clinical Trial Results Community

Half of our visitors come from the US and half of them come from outside the US from countries such as Germany, Italy, France, Japan, the UK, Canada, the Netherlands, Poland, Brazil and China to name just a few.  We reach over 8,000 members in our News and Slide Service. They can opt out at any time. The visitorship continues to grow daily.  Many new visitors come from Google, MSN or other search engines.

We Do Not Promote the "Off Label" Use of Drugs and Devices

While trying to keep up with information pertaining to advances in knowledge, the site is not intended to promote off label use of drugs or devices. These educational slides present data to support the rationale for the use of a variety of pharmacologic agents and devices in both approved and non-approved indications.  Actual prescribing information is by intent minimal or completely lacking. These slides have been prepared for scientific educational purposes, and cannot be considered an inducement to use any drug or device in non-registered indications. The site does not recommend the use of any drug or device in any manner inconsistent with that described in the full prescribing information.

How Can I Get More Involved?

We hope you enjoy using the site.  We could use your help though! Would you mind returning the favor and sharing your slides with others in the spirit of what we are trying to do?  Please email me your slides for consideration mgibson@clinicaltrialresults.org

C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D.

Founder, Editor-in-Chief