DIA clinical forum, day 3

Well, the clinical forum is now pretty much over, and the Dianthus Medical exhibition stand is being dismantled around me even as I type this.

Since my last blog entry, I've been to a couple of interesting sessions in the medical writing track. Yesterday afternoon, I attended a session on the role of medical writers in publications, which is always a lively topic. It was nice to see that, at least among the people attending the session, messages about ethical standards seem to be very well understood.

This morning, I've been hearing about requirements for posting clinical trial results online, largely as a result of the FDA Amendment Act. This seems to be a rapidly evolving area, as no-one seems quite sure yet what this will mean for the future of medical publications. Will companies still publish their trials in peer-reviewed journals if they have already posted quite detailed results on a publically available website? It seems that journal editors are now agreed that such legally-mandated posting of results does not constitute prior publication and therefore a barrier to a subsequent publication in a peer-reviewed journal, but is there any advantage to such a publication if the results are already in the public domain? Answers on a postcard please (or better still, using the  comments form below).