About PlainTrial

Our Mission

PlainTrial is a public-interest data portal that makes US clinical trial information more accessible and understandable. We believe that clinical trial data should be easy to search, explore, and understand, not buried in complex government databases that require specialized knowledge to navigate.

Clinical trials are the foundation of medical progress. Every approved drug, device, and treatment protocol went through clinical testing. Yet finding relevant trial information remains difficult for patients, caregivers, researchers, and journalists. Our purpose is to bridge this gap by organizing ClinicalTrials.gov data into a searchable, browsable format that surfaces meaningful patterns and connections.

We do not evaluate, rank, or recommend any clinical trial. We present official government data as-is and let users explore it in ways that the original source does not easily support, by condition, by sponsor, by state, and by recruitment status. Our goal is to empower patients and researchers with better access to the information they need to make informed decisions about clinical research participation.

Data Sources

All trial data comes from ClinicalTrials.gov, the official registry maintained by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). ClinicalTrials.gov is the world's largest clinical trial registry, containing information about more than 500,000 studies worldwide.

ClinicalTrials.gov REST API v2: Our primary data source, providing structured access to trial registration data including study title, conditions studied, sponsors, trial phases, recruitment status, participant targets, site locations, and eligibility criteria
Trial status data: Real-time recruitment status as reported by study sponsors, Recruiting, Active Not Recruiting, Completed, Terminated, and Not Yet Recruiting
Location data: Facility names, cities, and states for US-based trial sites, enabling geographic analysis of where trials are being conducted and where patients can participate
Sponsor data: Organizational sponsors including pharmaceutical companies, academic medical centers, NIH institutes, and other organizations funding clinical research
Condition mappings: Medical conditions and disease areas studied in each trial, normalized for consistent searching and aggregation across the database

ClinicalTrials.gov data is public domain under US government open data policies. We do not manufacture, modify, or supplement the underlying trial data. We organize and present it for easier consumption, comparison, and analysis.

Methodology

Our data processing pipeline systematically downloads, normalizes, and organizes clinical trial data from the ClinicalTrials.gov API. The process follows a structured methodology designed for accuracy and completeness:

Data collection: We query the ClinicalTrials.gov REST API v2 for US-based clinical trials across all statuses and phases. Trials are fetched in batches using pagination tokens, with rate limiting to comply with NLM usage policies. We prioritize recruiting trials but capture all statuses to provide complete historical context.

Condition normalization: Clinical trials often list conditions using varying terminology. A single disease might appear as "Breast Cancer", "Breast Neoplasms", or "Carcinoma of Breast" across different filings. We normalize condition names to enable accurate aggregation and searching. Each condition is linked to all trials that study it, creating a comprehensive condition-trial network.

Geographic mapping: Trial locations are mapped to US states and territories, enabling users to find trials in their area. Multi-site trials appear under each state where they have an active facility. This geographic layer is essential for patients who need to find trials within a reasonable travel distance.

Sponsor profiling: Sponsors are identified, standardized, and linked to their trial pipelines. This enables users to see the full scope of a pharmaceutical company's or academic institution's clinical research portfolio, total trials, phase distribution, therapeutic focus areas, and recruiting activity.

Status tracking: Each trial's recruitment status is captured as reported to ClinicalTrials.gov. We categorize trials into five primary statuses: Recruiting (actively seeking participants), Active Not Recruiting (ongoing but recruitment closed), Completed, Terminated, or Not Yet Recruiting.

Data Freshness and Update Schedule

ClinicalTrials.gov is updated continuously as sponsors submit new registrations and update existing trials. Our database captures a comprehensive snapshot of US clinical trials at the time of our most recent data pull. We update our database periodically to reflect new trial registrations, status changes, and updated information.

Between updates, individual trial details may change on ClinicalTrials.gov without being reflected in our database. Trial status is particularly dynamic, a trial shown as "Recruiting" on PlainTrial may have stopped recruiting since our last data refresh. Participant counts, eligibility criteria, and study protocols can also be amended between our update cycles.

We always encourage users to verify current trial information directly on ClinicalTrials.gov before making any decisions about trial participation. Each trial detail page on PlainTrial includes a direct link to the corresponding ClinicalTrials.gov entry for this purpose.

Editorial Independence

PlainTrial is an independent publisher. Raw data from ClinicalTrials.gov (NIH/NLM) - the official US clinical trial registry, is loaded directly into readable profiles exactly as each trial's record is reported by its sponsor, without altering the underlying numbers. Our editorial process, writes the plain-language guides and explainers and is responsible for editorial standards, the methodology, and corrections.

We do not accept payment, sponsorship, or promoted placement from trial sponsors, pharmaceutical companies, contract research organizations, investigator sites, or any covered entity. Our only revenue source is contextual display advertising served by Google AdSense, advertisers do not influence which trials we cover or how we present data, and they do not receive preferential placement.

Limitations and Disclaimer

PlainTrial provides information for educational purposes only. Nothing on this site constitutes medical advice. Critical limitations to understand:

Data may not reflect real-time updates from ClinicalTrials.gov, trial status, participant counts, and eligibility may have changed since our last data refresh
We focus on US-based trials and do not comprehensively cover international studies conducted outside the United States
Trial eligibility criteria shown are summaries, full inclusion and exclusion criteria should be reviewed on ClinicalTrials.gov before considering trial participation
Completion of a trial does not mean the treatment is approved by the FDA, many trials end without resulting in regulatory approval
Phase designations reflect the trial sponsor's categorization and may not always align precisely with regulatory definitions
Sponsor names are as reported in filings and may not reflect current corporate structures following mergers, acquisitions, or name changes
Some trials may have results available on ClinicalTrials.gov that are not displayed on PlainTrial, we focus on trial registry data rather than results reporting

Always consult your healthcare provider before making any health decisions, including decisions about clinical trial participation. PlainTrial is not affiliated with the NIH, NLM, FDA, or any government agency. We are an independent data portal providing public information in a more accessible format.

Contact

For questions, feedback, or data correction requests, email us at hello@plaintrial.com. We welcome suggestions for improving the site and reports of data discrepancies. For corrections to the underlying trial data, contact ClinicalTrials.gov directly, as they maintain the official source data.

If you are a researcher, healthcare professional, or patient advocate who would like to discuss how PlainTrial can better serve your needs, we welcome the conversation.