OBJECTIVES: Following the recent economic growth in Latin America, this analysis was undertaken to analyse the corresponding shift in healthcare trends, by examining the number of clinical trials being conducted in the region and their changing focus on non-communicable and communicable diseases. METHODS: ClinicalTrials.gov was searched in March 2015 for all trials with a study start date from January 2000 to December 2014 in five Latin American countries: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. Studies were classified as either communicable or non-communicable according to the World Health Organization International Classification of Disease-10 (WHO ICD-10), with studies that did not focus on disease or illness excluded.  RESULTS: Between the five selected Latin American countries there were a total of 8,847 relevant studies identified, 46.3% of which originated from Brazil. Over the entire time period from 2000 to 2014, 89.3% of studies were concerning non-communicable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and musculoskeletal disorders, whilst 10.7% focused on communicable diseases. An analysis over time saw a trend of an increasing proportion of trials in non-communicable diseases and a fall in the proportion of studies in communicable diseases. In 2000, non-communicable diseases accounted for 77.8% of studies, compared with 22.2% in communicable diseases, however by 2014 these percentages were 93.4% and 6.6%, respectively. There were 711 unique studies across the countries in communicable disease; 24.9% of these were in HIV/AIDs, one of the most deadly, infectious diseases in the region, responsible for approximately 7.2 deaths per 100,000 people across the five selected countries. CONCLUSIONS: The healthcare trends of Latin America appear to be changing alongside its rapid economic expansion; fewer clinical trials are being carried out in preventable, infectious diseases more commonly associated with poor healthcare availability and substandard living conditions, and there is an increasing focus on non-communicable diseases such as neoplasms, obesity and dementias.