RCVS Trust declares support for ‘All Trials’ campaign

The RCVS Charitable Trust has declared its support for the ‘All Trials’ campaign’s aims. These are for all clinical trials, past and present, to be publicly registered, and for the full methods and the results to be openly reported.

We believe it’s vital that the outcomes of clinical research are accessible to, and disseminated among, both veterinary and human healthcare professionals.

Nick Royle

“We believe it’s vital that the outcomes of clinical research are accessible to, and disseminated among, both veterinary and human healthcare professionals, since evidence-based medicine relies upon accessible information so that informed choices can be made about patient care,” says RCVS Charitable Trust Executive Director, Nick Royle.

“Evidence-based medicine constitutes our core activity, both as a funder of research and as an organisation committed to advancing veterinary knowledge, so we have declared our unreserved support for the ‘All Trials’ campaign’s aims.”

The under-reporting of clinical trials, especially those resulting in neutral or negative outcomes, creates a pool of available clinical knowledge biased towards certain interventions.

It also potentially defrauds the expectations of patients and their carers in both the human and animal world.

It can further result in the unnecessary repetition of studies, which, apart from wasting resources and time, goes against the goal of ’replacing, reducing and refining‘ the number of animals used for scientific purposes.

No publicly available registry of clinical trials exists at present for veterinary medicine. Regulation of clinical trials is performed at a national level, and focuses mostly on animals destined for the human food chain.

The Trust aims to contribute to a future where such information can more easily be shared and therefore welcomes and supports advances towards that goal in human medicine, in the further hope that the goals of the ‘All Trials‘ campaign will be replicated in the veterinary field, and beyond.

For more information, and to lend your support to this campaign by signing the All Trials petition, please visit the All Trials website.