Discrepancies in serious adverse event reporting may distort the medical evidence base

Nicholette Zeliadt
The worst thing that can happen to a person participating in a clinical trial is what’s known as a ‘serious adverse event’, which can describe anything from permanent kidney damage or liver failure to hospitalization or even death. Federal law in the US mandates that researchers conducting trials of drugs or other products regulated by the country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report adverse events on ClinicalTrials.gov, a data repository open to the public. But a new study shows that man