Kilicoglu awarded grant to examine reliability of randomized clinical trials for health treatments

Halil Kilicoglu
Halil Kilicoglu, Associate Professor

Randomized clinical trials are valuable in determining the effectiveness of health treatments. But problems with design, execution or reporting of the trial process can lead to unreliable findings, excessive costs, and, potentially, harm for patients.

Associate Professor Halil Kilicoglu and his colleagues seek to address this problem with the help of a $1,328,502 grant from the National Institutes of Health. The funding for this project, "Computational Methods, Resources, and Tools to Assess Transparency and Rigor of Randomized Clinical Trials," will be awarded over the next four years.

"I am leading a team of computer/information scientists and clinical research methodologists in developing datasets, natural language processing (NLP) methods, and ultimately software tools that will help various stakeholders of biomedical communication assess and improve the reporting quality in randomized clinical trial protocols and result publications," Kilicoglu said.

NLP, he explained, refers to the use of algorithms to model natural human language so that computers can process and understand what humans have written or said.

Although often costly, randomized clinical trials provide the most robust evidence for determining how well therapeutic interventions such as drugs can work. However, according to Kilicoglu, clinical trials often suffer from poor methodological and reporting quality (also known as rigor and transparency, respectively). This can render the trials' findings questionable, and waste dollars meant to find treatments.

Kilicoglu's group will help address the problem by applying NLP methods to both the assessment of clinical trial protocols (generally published before the trial is launched) and their result publications (published after the study is completed). The methods will look at whether the trials' procedures and results are reported in appropriate detail. Kilicoglu and his colleagues will also collaborate with journals to pilot test the tools that are developed.

The work of Kilicoglu and his team will be helpful to all involved in clinical research, including scientists, journal editors, peer reviewers, and funders. His team will develop a set of models, resources, and tools that will assist these stakeholders in maintaining high reporting standards, synthesizing evidence, and promoting open science practices. The work is intended to contribute to improvements throughout the scientific ecosystem, leading to better clinical care and health policy.

Kilicoglu's group will work with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) on the Urbana campus, as well as clinical research methodologists from the University of North Carolina, University of Arkansas, and Indiana University.

Kilicoglu earned his PhD in computer science from Concordia University in 2012. Prior to joining the iSchool faculty, he worked as a research scientist at the U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Hassan selected for IAPP Westin Scholar Award

PhD student Muhammad Hassan has been selected as an IAPP Westin Scholar Award honoree. The annual awards were created by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) to support students who are identified as future leaders in the field of privacy and data protection. 

Muhammad Hassan

Bak defends dissertation

PhD candidate Michelle Bak successfully defended her dissertation, "Promoting a Healthy and Comprehensive Diet through Theory-Driven Large Language Models-based Agents," on July 14.

Chaewon Bak

School welcomes specialized faculty

The iSchool is pleased to announce the appointment of two specialized faculty members. Yildiz Esener and Nitin Verma will join the School as teaching assistant professors in August 2025.

iSchool to present research at the Digital Humanities 2025 conference

iSchool faculty, staff, and students will present their research at DH2025, the annual conference of the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO), which will take place on July 14–18 in Lisbon, Portugal. The digital humanities (DH) conference is the largest event of the international DH community and unites scholars from across the globe. 

2025 ISAA Annual Awards announced

iSchool Alumni Association (ISAA) is pleased to announce the recipients of its annual awards, which were presented at an alumni reception during the 2025 ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition.