In recent weeks, the National Institutes of Health has begun emailing academic institutions that failed to submit results of clinical trials to a government database, a move that comes shortly after a federal watchdog harshly criticized the agency for lax oversight.
More than two dozen institutions have been contacted as of this week, according to the Clinical Trials Registration and Results Reporting Taskforce, a national consortium of academic medical centers, universities, hospitals, and nonprofit organizations focused on clinical trial transparency. The taskforce is currently surveying its members to determine the extent of the NIH effort.