One of a Kind - The Pan African Clinical Trials Registry, a regional registry for Africa

AL Abrams

doi:10.4314/pamj.v9i1.71221

Abstract

The 2004 Ministerial Summit on Health Research called on the World Health Organization to to establish a registry network with the intention of providing a single access point to identify trials. In 2007 the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors amended their support of this initiative stating that only trials registered prospectively on a member registry of the WHO's Network of Primary Registers would be published. The Pan African Clinical Trials Registry (www.pactr.org), was established in early 2007 as the AIDS, TB and Malaria (ATM) Clinical Trials Registry with the aim of piloting the concept of a registry that would cater to the specific needs of African trialists. In 2009 the ATM Registry expanded its remit to include all diseases for all regions of Africa; The Pan African Clinical Trials Registry became the first and is presently the only African member of the World Health Organization's Network of Primary Registers.

Highlights

Evidence from clinical trials can best answer research questions exploring which medicines or interventions work, and whether they cause harm [1]
Since one goal of the registry is to assist with minimising publication bias, at present www.pactr.org only accepts trials registered before first contact with patients
In November 2010, www.pactr.org contributed to the first Working Group for the Pan African Clinical Trials Alliance (PACTA), a World Health Organization (WHO) supported initiative that brought together African national representatives with the aim of piloting aspects of registry and regulatory development

Summary

Introduction

Evidence from clinical trials can best answer research questions exploring which medicines or interventions work, and whether they cause harm [1]. The Pan African Clinical Trials Registry (www.pactr.org), managed by the South African Cochrane Centre at the Medical Research Council, was established in early 2007 as the AIDS, TB and Malaria (ATM) Clinical Trials Registry. Since one goal of the registry is to assist with minimising publication bias, at present www.pactr.org only accepts trials registered before first contact with patients (i.e., prospectively).

Results

Conclusion