Spotlight on Research

Although over recent years there has been an increased volume of research relating to out-of-hospital emergency and unscheduled care, Lerner et al (2015) suggest the evidence base remains limited, partly because of the relative newness of the speciality, and also because there are unique challenges to successfully undertaking research in the pre-hospital setting.

This study set out to determine how researchers carry out pre-hospital clinical trials and to examine how emergency medical systems (EMS) can develop capacity to continue to undertake successful clinical research.

Using ClinicalTrials.gov, prospective studies were identified based on the following inclusion criteria: study initiated after 2000; has at least one study site based in the USA; and involves data collection activities in the pre-hospital setting. ClinicalTrials.gov is an open access registry and results database that provides information on publicly and privately supported clinical studies round the world.

A total of 39 study sites were selected and the principal investigator (PI) for each site was invited to participate. In addition, the PIs were asked for permission to contact the study coordinators and/or the EMS liaison in order to get different perspectives on barriers and enablers to pre- hospital research.