Unlocking Clinical Trial Data: Driving Smarter Decisions in Safety, Compliance, and Trial Design

As life science companies strive to accelerate product development and meet ever-changing regulations, researchers are increasingly tasked with conducting faster, more transparent, and scientifically rigorous literature reviews. These literature reviews form the backbone of evidence-based decision-making on product safety, compliance, and competitive insight—and require timely access to high-quality data on treatments, medical devices, and other drug safety-related events. 

One particularly valuable source of this information for pharma, medical technology, and regulatory professionals conducting literature reviews is clinical trials data. Yet access is fragmented, with trial data siloed in registries that are inconsistently indexed and difficult to search. Researchers must navigate multiple platforms, risking delays or errors in trial planning, regulatory submissions, and safety monitoring.

The solution lies in improving the discoverability and integration of clinical trials data, by bringing it together with published literature in a centralized, accessible platform. This approach reshapes and optimizes how scientific, clinical, and regulatory teams gather evidence and make critical decisions.

Building a searchable source of clinical trial data

Improving the reliability of literature search starts with centralizing data. Clinical trials involve a range of stakeholders, including R&D innovators, clinical research organizations (CROs), and investigators, but results are not always easily accessible. Integrating clinical trial data with peer-reviewed articles, conference abstracts, and in-press publications provides researchers with a fuller view of the evidence base for a drug or device. 

Applying controlled vocabularies and harmonized synonyms to this combined dataset ensures insights aren’t overlooked. Inconsistencies in how information is recorded is a persistent challenge in clinical trials records. For example, a patient might report the side effect, “the drug made me throw up” while a clinician records “emesis” or “vomiting.” Standardized indexing bridges these linguistic differences, enabling accurate analysis of trial data.

Equally important is making search platforms intuitive and capable of navigating complex scientific data. Features like real-time alerts help researchers stay updated on new developments on a drug, device or therapeutic area, while data export tools simplify documentation for reviews and reports.

Here are three teams that benefit from streamlined access to structured, searchable clinical trial data.

1. Drug safety and pharmacovigilance teams

Adverse events and drug–drug interactions are recorded daily and it’s the responsibility of drug safety teams to monitor reports to meet regulatory requirements. Early-phase trials are often where adverse events are first recorded; timely access to trial data is therefore essential for early detection and response. Real-time alerts are especially useful here, allowing teams to act quickly on updating risk assessments, investigating further, and notifying regulators.

2. Medical device professionals

Medical device manufacturers must generate evidence across the product lifecycle, from pre-market investigations to post-market surveillance. Systematic literature reviews are an essential part of this evidence gathering and are becoming increasingly stringent under regulations such as EU’s Medical Device Registration MDR and In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices Regulation (IVDR). 

Device manufacturers must capture all evidence related to their device as well as competitor equivalent devices, or risk regulatory rejection or delay. This risk can be reduced with a search platform capable of supporting advanced search strategies like PICO, which allows users to target specific populations, interventions, comparators, and outcomes to make searches more precise.

3. Clinical trial designers

Designing new trials requires reviewing similar studies to inform protocols and recruitment strategies, including engaging more diverse patient populations. This includes insights into endpoints, populations, and inclusion/exclusion criteria. Understanding what has or hasn’t worked in the past and what studies are currently ongoing helps avoid duplication and improves feasibility. With centralized access to as much historical and current global trial data as possible, designers can surface relevant insights faster and reduce cycle times.

Moving from disconnected data to actionable insights

Combining trials data with published literature enables transparent, efficient, and reproducible decision-making. Pharma, medical technology, and regulatory teams are better equipped to detect safety signals early, accelerate regulatory workflows, and design more effective trials. With smarter access to clinical trial data, life sciences organizations aren’t just improving current processes, they’re building a foundation for faster innovation across the sector. Overall, clinical trials can offer a treasure trove of information. Unlocking the insights contained can bring significant value for multiple use cases across the life sciences value chain.