Public Comments
Comments provided on: August 30, 2024
Comments provided to: National Institutes of Health
Abstract: The MRCT Center recently submitted comments to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) in response to the “Evolving the Network of the National Library of Medicine” initiative (NOT-LM-24-001), emphasizing the importance of enhancing health literacy through better access to clinical research information. Key recommendations included expanding MedlinePlus to include more content related to clinical trials, integrating plain language definitions into ClinicalTrials.gov, and providing aggregate study results in plain language for participants. The MRCT Center also suggested improvements to ClinicalTrials.gov that would allow current participants to access updates on study progress and individual results and harmonize study-specific data elements to facilitate cross-study comparisons. These recommendations aim to improve public engagement, transparency, and trust in the clinical research ecosystem.