Clinical trials in otology: Examining trends and framework for prioritization

OBJECTIVE: To characterize otologic clinical trials and examine otologic clinical trial trends from 2008 to 2018 using the clinicaltrials.gov database. METHODS: Data was collected from clinicaltrials.gov and included all clinical trials that focused on otology from 2008 to 2018. Outcome measures include status of trials, funding sources, details regarding otologic conditions studied, and trends in clinical trials. RESULTS: There were 992 otology clinical trials from 2008 to 2018.457 (46.1%) were completed and 94 (9.5%) were discontinued. Industry remained the highest (76.5%) contributor to otology clinical trials. The otologic conditions studied, from most common to least common, include hearing loss (40.6%), vestibulopathy (18.8%), tinnitus (18.8%), and otitis media (15.1%). The number of otology clinical trials increased by an average of 12.0 trials per year from 2008 to 2018 (p < 0.001). The number of otology clinical trials focusing on hearing loss and vestibulopathy significantly increased over the studied period (p < 0.001), while those focusing on tinnitus and otitis media did not (p = 0.09 and p = 0.20, respectively). The majority of clinical trials on each of these four conditions focused on treatment options. CONCLUSION: Our study describes trends in otology clinical trials registered on clinicaltrials.gov from 2008 through 2018. The total number of clinical trials over this time period increased significantly, driven by trials investigating hearing loss and vestibulopathy. Furthermore, most clinical trials were industry-sponsored and focused on treatment modalities. Our study provides an outline of otology clinical trials registered in a US web-based database, which may be of use for the development of future clinical trials.