Grand Rounds June 5, 2026: Bringing Context and Clarity to Clinical Trial Research for Clinician and Public Health Audiences: JAMA+ Trials (Alison Huang, MD, MAS; Derek Angus, MD, MPH)

Posted on by Sophia Ramirez

Speakers

Alison Huang, MD, MAS
Editor-in-Chief of JAMA+ Trials
Professor of Medicine, Urology, and Epidemiology & Biostatistics
University of California San Francisco

Derek Angus, MD, MPH
Senior Editor of JAMA, Editorial Advisor for JAMA+ Trials
Distinguished Professor and Mitchell P. Fink Endowed Chair of Critical Care Medicine
University of Pittsburgh

Keywords

Clinical Trials; Evidence-Based Treatments; Clinical Evidence; Publishing; Research Communications

Key Points

  • The clinical trials pipeline is in an era of both innovation and challenge. Evidence shows that patients believe in the value of trial evidence, but the public continues to adopt health interventions that are not evidence-based. Additional challenges include the slow translation of trial evidence into clinician practice, decreased engagement in trial research by academic clinicians, and a communications gap between clinical trialists and clinical audiences.
  • JAMA+ Trials is a new online platform seeking to augment and amplify JAMA’s combined clinical trials content, bridging the gap between the clinical trials community and the network’s broader audiences. It highlights the implications and innovations of clinical trial research from across diverse clinical fields to advance evidence-based medicine and public health.
  • The platform will include curated access to JAMA Network clinical trials publications from 2022 on, as well as related resources and collections; summaries of clinical trial research for clinician audiences; and meta-research and commentary about clinical trials.

Discussion Themes

The editors’ goals include highlighting how trials converge and diverge across clinical disciplines, interventions, and populations; catalyzing conversations about innovations in the design or methods of trials; and promoting honest dialogue about challenges and controversies in clinical trials to enhance professional and public trust in the trial enterprise.

The current regulatory environment, Dr. Angus argued, often fails to consider the harm of not doing a trial. This places high burdens on research while ignoring the massive, unvalidated variation in routine clinical practice.

Attendees were invited to contribute ideas to help shape the platform so that it may better serve professional and public needs.