Opinion: STAT+: Enough, already: the problem with clinical trial data collection
Why this matters: health reporting relevant to everyday decisions and well-being.
The clinical research ecosystem has never been more technologically capable — or more burdened by its own ambition. In December 2025, the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development and our team at Trans Celerate published research that suggests nearly 30% of the data collected in clinical trials do not directly inform key decisions, yet patients are still asked to provide it. Additionally, since 2005, the number of procedures per protocol has increased by nearly 140%, endpoints by more than 200%, and data points collected by over 600%. I work with heads of R&D from 18 of the world’s largest pharma companies. It is abundantly clear to me — and to many of them — that the industry’s tendency toward “more is better” when it comes to data collection is fundamentally undermining trials, not improving them.     Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…