Bring Clinical Trials
to Claude Desktop
Learn how to connect Harvard ClinicalTrials to Claude Desktop and start using 16 AI agent tools in minutes. Fully managed, enterprise secure, and ready to use without writing a single line of code.
GDPR Free for SubscribersCompatible with every major AI agent and IDE
Gemini
What is the Harvard ClinicalTrials MCP Server?
Connect to the ClinicalTrials.gov API v2 — the largest database of clinical studies worldwide, maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
What you can do
- Study Search — Search 400K+ clinical trials from 220+ countries
- Condition Filter — Find trials for specific diseases (cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's)
- Intervention Filter — Search by drug, device, or therapy name
- Sponsor Search — Find trials by organization (Pfizer, NIH, Roche)
- Phase Filter — Filter by Phase 1-4 to track drug development stages
- Recruiting — Find trials currently enrolling participants
- Location — Search by city or country for accessible trials
- FDA Regulated — Filter for FDA-regulated drug and device trials
- Pediatric — Find trials including children
- Rare Diseases — Discover research for orphan conditions
- Results — Get outcome data from completed studies
Who is this for?
- Medical Researchers — systematic reviews and evidence synthesis
- Clinicians — find trial evidence for treatment decisions
- Patients — discover trials they may be eligible for
- Pharma Professionals — competitive landscape and pipeline analysis
Built-in capabilities (16)
gov API version and the timestamp of the most recent data update. Useful for verifying data currency and API availability. Get API version and data timestamp
g. "NCT04368728"). Returns title, status, phase, enrollment, conditions, interventions, eligibility criteria, sponsor, and study locations. Get clinical trial details by NCT ID
Not all trials report results — this is most useful for completed Phase 2-4 studies. Get primary outcome results for a trial
Essential for understanding the progress and currency of a study. Get the complete timeline of a clinical trial
Examples: "diabetes", "breast cancer", "Alzheimer disease", "COVID-19", "depression", "hypertension". Search trials by medical condition
Examples: "pembrolizumab", "metformin", "radiation therapy", "cognitive behavioral therapy". Search trials by drug or treatment
Essential for finding trials accessible to patients in a particular area. Search trials by geographic location
Phase values: "PHASE1", "PHASE2", "PHASE3", "PHASE4", "EARLY_PHASE1". Phase 3 trials are the largest and most definitive, while Phase 1 trials focus on safety. Search trials by study phase
Examples: "Pfizer", "National Cancer Institute", "Roche", "Novartis", "NIH". Search trials by sponsoring organization
Completed trials are more likely to have published results and outcomes data. Search completed clinical trials
Covers diagnostic devices, surgical tools, implants, and digital health technologies. Search medical device clinical trials
S. Food and Drug Administration. These trials follow the most rigorous regulatory standards. Search FDA-regulated drug trials
Essential for pediatricians, child health researchers, and parents seeking trials for children. Search pediatric clinical trials
Examples: "cystic fibrosis", "sickle cell disease", "Huntington disease", "amyotrophic lateral sclerosis". Search rare disease clinical trials
Essential for patients seeking to enroll in trials or researchers tracking active studies. Search for currently recruiting studies
gov database of over 400,000 clinical studies from 200+ countries. Returns NCT IDs, titles, status, phases, sponsors, conditions, interventions, and locations. Search 400K+ clinical trials worldwide
Why Claude Desktop?
Claude Desktop is the definitive way to connect Harvard ClinicalTrials to your AI workflow. Add Vinkius Edge URL to your config, restart the app, and Claude immediately exposes all 16 tools in the chat interface. ask a question, Claude calls the right tool, and you see the answer. Zero code, zero context switching.
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Claude Desktop is the reference MCP client. it was designed alongside the protocol itself, ensuring the most complete and stable MCP implementation available
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Zero-code configuration: add a server URL to a JSON file and Claude instantly discovers and exposes all available tools in the chat interface
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Claude's extended thinking capability lets it reason through multi-step tool usage, chaining multiple API calls to answer complex questions
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Enterprise-grade security with local config storage. your tokens never leave your machine, and connections go directly to Vinkius Edge network
Harvard ClinicalTrials in Claude Desktop
Harvard ClinicalTrials and 4,000+ other MCP servers. One platform. One governance layer.
Teams that connect Harvard ClinicalTrials to Claude Desktop through Vinkius don't need to source, host, or maintain individual MCP servers. Every tool call runs inside a hardened runtime with credential isolation, DLP, and a signed audit chain.
Raw MCP | Vinkius | |
|---|---|---|
| Server catalog | Find and host yourself | 4,000+ managed |
| Infrastructure | Self-hosted | Sandboxed V8 isolates |
| Credential handling | Plaintext in config | Vault + runtime injection |
| Data loss prevention | None | Configurable DLP policies |
| Kill switch | None | Global instant shutdown |
| Financial circuit breakers | None | Per-server limits + alerts |
| Audit trail | None | Ed25519 signed logs |
| SIEM log streaming | None | Splunk, Datadog, Webhook |
| Honeytokens | None | Canary alerts on leak |
| Custom domains | Not applicable | DNS challenge verified |
| GDPR compliance | Manual effort | Automated purge + export |
Why teams choose Vinkius for Harvard ClinicalTrials in Claude Desktop
The Harvard ClinicalTrials MCP Server runs on Vinkius-managed infrastructure inside AWS — a purpose-built runtime with per-request V8 isolates, Ed25519 signed audit chains, and sub-40ms cold starts. All 16 tools execute in hardened sandboxes optimized for native MCP execution.
Your AI agents in Claude Desktop only access the data you authorize, with DLP that blocks sensitive information from ever reaching the model, kill switch for instant shutdown, and up to 60% token savings. Enterprise-grade infrastructure, zero maintenance.
* Every MCP server runs on Vinkius-managed infrastructure inside AWS - a purpose-built runtime with per-request V8 isolates, Ed25519 signed audit chains, and sub-40ms cold starts optimized for native MCP execution. See our infrastructure
How Vinkius secures
Harvard ClinicalTrials for Claude Desktop
Every tool call from Claude Desktop to the Harvard ClinicalTrials MCP Server is protected by DLP redaction, cryptographic audit chains, V8 sandbox isolation, kill switch, and financial circuit breakers.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an API key?
No. ClinicalTrials.gov is completely free and public. No authentication required.
What are clinical trial phases?
Phase 1 tests safety in small groups; Phase 2 evaluates efficacy; Phase 3 confirms effectiveness in large populations; Phase 4 monitors post-approval. Each phase provides progressively stronger evidence.
Can patients find trials to enroll in?
Yes. Use the recruiting filter to find trials currently accepting participants. You can filter by condition, location, and eligibility criteria to find accessible trials.
How does Claude Desktop discover MCP tools?
When Claude Desktop starts, it reads the claude_desktop_config.json file and connects to each configured MCP server. It calls the tools/list endpoint to fetch the schema for every available tool, then surfaces them as clickable options in the chat interface via the 🔌 icon.
What happens if the MCP server is temporarily unavailable?
Claude Desktop handles disconnections gracefully. if the server is unreachable at startup, the tools simply won't appear. Once the server becomes available again, restarting Claude Desktop will re-establish the connection. There is no timeout penalty or error loop.
Can I connect multiple MCP servers simultaneously?
Yes. You can add as many servers as you need in the mcpServers section of the config file. Each server appears as a separate tool provider, and Claude can use tools from multiple servers in a single conversation turn.
Is there a limit on the number of tools per server?
Claude Desktop can handle hundreds of tools per server. However, for optimal LLM performance, Vinkius servers are designed to expose focused, well-documented tool sets rather than overwhelming the model with too many options.
Does Claude Desktop support Streamable HTTP transport?
Yes. Claude Desktop supports both SSE (Server-Sent Events) and the newer Streamable HTTP transport that Vinkius uses. Simply provide the server URL. Claude auto-negotiates the transport protocol.
Server not appearing after restart
Ensure the JSON is valid (no trailing commas). Check the file path: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\\Claude\\ (Windows).
Authentication error
Verify your Vinkius token is correct. Go to cloud.vinkius.com to regenerate it if needed.
Tools not showing in chat
Click the 🔌 icon at the bottom of the chat input. If it shows 0 tools, the server may still be connecting. wait a few seconds.
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