Methods for enhancing the efficiency of dental/oral health clinical trials: current status, future possibilities.

In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for clinical trials to study oral, dental, and craniofacial diseases and conditions. This has resulted from such factors as the increasing pace of discoveries requiring translational research to develop them for clinical use, FDA requirements for product approval, a need for additional data to support evidence-based dental practice, and the expansion of the NIDCR's clinical research programs. The complexity, size, and duration of clinical trials often make them quite costly to conduct, and may impede the development of novel diagnostic, preventive, and therapeutic methods that could have a significant impact on clinical practice and inform public health policy. Recent advances in such areas as genomics and proteomics, coupled with the development of new technologies, have expanded our knowledge of the etiology and pathogenesis of disease and, from this, have provided new insights into the design and conduct of clinical trials. The workshop, "Methods for Enhancing the Efficiency of Dental/Oral Health Clinical Trials: Current Status, Future Possibilities", held on May 6-7, 2004, considered a variety of ways in which these insights are being, or have the potential to be, applied to clinical trials so as to enhance their efficiency and, hence, their cost-effectiveness, without diminishing the quality of information produced. The focus of this workshop was to assess the state of the science and identify research needs for the use of biomarkers, surrogate endpoints, and new technologies in oral disease clinical trials. Examples of ways in which clinical trials of other diseases have benefited from the use of new methods and technologies and FDA considerations were also discussed.