Update 5/14/13: A more up to date list of blogs is available here.
Looking for blogs and online publications to help you stay up on clinical trials news, trends, and best practices? You’ve come to the right place.
Read on for a list of 22 websites that will keep your clinical research knowledge cutting edge at the low low price of free. The list includes 12 blogs, 6 online magazines, and 4 online journals for clinical research professionals.
Please note that though there are great pharma and healthcare websites that will likely be of interest to clinical research professionals, I kept the list limited to sites with substantial clinical trials content.
Don’t miss these great clinical research blogs and online publications.
In no particular order, here is the list.
Clinical Research Blogs
- Ask Cato is the official blog of Cato Research, a full-service CRO. Cato’s staff contributes expertise on a variety of important clinical research topics, including the FDA, eCTD, industry news, regulatory strategy, and more. One of Cato’s blog contributors, Evan Richardson, recently guest authored a post on our blog about Cato’s use of social media.
- Clinical Trials Guru focuses on video clinical trials content. The hosts, Dan and Don, provide their opinion on various clinical trials topics and interview experts in the industry. Unlike the rest of the resources on this list, Clinical Trials Guru has some patient-focused content, but information for clinical research professionals is available for viewing as well.
- Rx Trials Communiqué is the blog of Rx Trials, an investigative site network. Most posts are courtesy of guest bloggers, and the content is unique in that much of it focuses on topics particularly of interest to clinical research sites.
- Trial Blazers blog is maintained by BioClinica, a company offering technology-enhanced clinical trial management services. Since BioClinica is a technology company, most of the content focuses on technology issues in the clinical trials industry, including posts related to eclinical, imaging, and more.
- Clinical Trial Portal, a web-based portal and communication center, publishes a blog focusing on clinical research technology issues. Updates to the Clinical Trial Portal blog are not as frequent as the other blogs on this list, but posts are consistently of very good quality and tackle interesting technology topics.
- Cutting Edge Information, a boutique research company serving the life sciences industries, provides insights based on original benchmarking and best practices research. Their blog consistently delivers concise and engaging analysis of important industry topics without any fluff, and it provides a taste of their full reports available for purchase.
- The Partnerships in Clinical Trials blog is an extension of the conference by the same name. Most blog posts are courtesy of guest bloggers, and content focuses on optimization intelligence, regulatory trends, and globalization strategies for sponsors and CROs.
- Conducting Clinical Research is the blog of Dr. Judy Stone, an Infectious Diseases physician, clinical researcher, and author of the book Conducting Clinical Research. Her blog is a great place to get insight on a variety of healthcare related topics, particularly in the area of clinical research.
- Chromosome is the blog of goBalto, a company that has developed a web-based clinical trial startup platform. Chromosome features interviews and commentary from industry experts about clinical research news and industry trends. Since Chromosome has been around since 2009, it has a nice backlog of content for your reading pleasure.
- CR Tutor is a clinical research learning blog offering various training resources for current and aspiring industry professionals. This blog is an excellent place to get a basic explanation of various clinical research topics and even offers quizzes for professionals to test their knowledge.
- The Lead CRA Blog is unique in that it’s written from the perspective of an experienced CRA. Blog posts include tips for aspiring CRAs, CRA productivity recommendations, career advice, Q&As, site relations advice, and more.
- GxP Perspectives was written by Carl Anderson, a regulatory affairs and quality assurance consultant in the field of FDA health product approvals. The blog discussed issues related to the Food and Drug Administration, regulatory compliance, and GxP best practice. Unfortunately, as of 2017, it appears the blog is no longer maintained and has been taken over by a spammer.
Online Clinical Research Magazines
- Outsourcing Pharma publishes breaking news on contract research, manufacturing, and clinical trials. In addition to articles, Outsourcing Pharma also provides access to video and audio interviews with various industry experts. Outsourcing Pharma periodically conducts free online virtual conferences as well.
- ClinPage focuses on current clinical trial news as well as industry innovation and emerging technology. Their highly substantive articles are consistently entertaining and infused with industry-related humor. While you are there, check out a recent interview I did with ClinPage about digital strategy and patient recruitment.
- Applied Clinical Trials, a global peer-reviewed journal, publishes Applied Clinical Trials Online as an online companion to the journal. The website has a blog, various columns, podcasts, webcasts, an event calendar, and other resources. Content is helpfully categorized in navigation tabs as CRO/sponsor, sites, IT, labs, and regulatory design.
- Bio-IT World provides breaking news, analysis, and opinion on technologies that drive biomedical research and drug development. In addition to articles, Bio-IT World publishes podcasts, webcasts, and white papers, and content is focused on predictive biology, drug discovery, informatics, personalized medicine, and clinical trials.
- CenterWatch publishes a daily news feed, known as CenterWatch News Online, in addition to the other clinical trials industry resources available on its site. Topics include items related to study conduct, CROs and service providers, technology, ethics and regulatory, R&D trends, and more.
- eCliniqua provides news and analysis on challenges related to clinical research, clinical trial design, data management, and technology solutions. Focus areas include trial design and logistics, electronic data capture and management technology, regulatory issues, drug safety, and market insights.
Online Clinical Research Journals
- The Open Access Journal of Clinical Trials is a peer-reviewed, open access, online journal that publishes original research, reports, editorials, reviews and commentaries on clinical trials topics. Articles focus on clinical trial design, management, legal, ethical and regulatory issues, and more.
- The Journal of Clinical Research Best Practices is a monthly open access electronic journal published by First Clinical Research. In addition to articles, it publishes SOPs, forms, and checklists available for download by visitors.
- Perspectives in Clinical Research (PICR) is an open access publication of the Indian Society for Clinical Research. It is published quarterly and contains articles about all aspects of clinical research, including methodology, regulatory, management, training, and more.
- The Journal of Clinical Research and Bioethics is a peer-reviewed open access journal focusing on the ethical considerations associated with the conduct of clinical research.
Now it’s your turn. What are your favorite clinical research blogs and online publications? What websites have I missed? Please share them in the comments below.
Hey Rahlyn, what about Trialx.com and the blog http://www.trialx.com/curetalk? Would love your feedback about the site and blog!
– Kim
Kim,
I hesitated to hit publish on this one because I was afraid I’d miss someone. And sure enough I did. Thanks for bringing this oversight to my attention. I will add TrialX.
Kim,
It looks like the bulk of the content on the Curetalk blog is geared towards patients. At some point I might do a patient-focused clinical trials blog/website list, and given all of the patient content, CureTalk would be a better fit for such a list.
CureTalk has an impressive range of content for patients, and it’s an excellent case study in using digital media to reach patients interested in clinical trials. Thanks so much for your comment!
Great blog though and great resources! Blogging with lists, especially in the clinical trials sector is a sure way to bring traffic 😉 Thanks for the shout out as well.
– Kim
I didnt realize there were quite this many blogs out there covering clinical trials. Thanks again Rahlyn for the great investigative work/research!
Glad you like the list, Dan. Appreciate the support! Many of these blogs are not prominent in search engine results, so most searches for clinical trials information will not easily uncover them. I’ve collected this list over several months, mostly as I’ve run across them in social media spaces. I figured it was time to share so hopefully others won’t have to put so much work into finding these resources.
I’d love to see more clinical trials professionals start blogging. There are so many facets to the industry, and I think we could all learn a lot from these additional perspectives.
Rahlyn, thanks for the great investigative work. I get a little excited when I see this many blogs focused on our space!
Hi Rahlyn,
Thats really a great list- My favorites also include
http://gxpperspectives.com/
http://leadcra.blogspot.com
http://crtutor.com
I thought these may interest your readers as well.
I have not run across any of these, and they all look great. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your favorites!
I would like to thank pnreddy for mentioning GxP Perspectives. Right now we are featuring discussions on the new FDA draft guidance for risk-based monitoring of clinical trials. This guidance could dramatically change the way sponsors monitor clinical research. I would invite your readers comments. I agree you have put together a great list most of which I had not heard of. Thanks!
Carl Anderson
GxP Perspectives
Hi Carl,
I’ve added your blog as well as the others suggested by pnreddy, all of which look great. I’m looking forward to reading your thoughts on the new draft guidance. Thanks for the comment and for sharing information about your blog.
Thanks for adding CR Tutor to your list Rahlyn.
We like Industry Standard Research’s (ISR) twitter feeds. twitter.com/isrreports
Good, actual data
Stan,
I follow ISR and enjoy their Twitter feed as well. If Twitter is your thing, you might want to check out my series on Twitter for Clinical Research Professionals. The second part of the series links to several clinical research lists, which might help you find some new people to follow. Here it is:
https://rebarinteractive.com/twitter-clinical-research/
Hi Rahlyn – consider adding this blog to your list – I just started it
http://advcrm.blogspot.com/
Hi Rahlyn,
Thank you for the information you provided, I was wandering for some articles under clinical trials and here alas! Ive found many. I enjoy being pharmacologist when I get information very precisely.