Promoting Clinical Trials

Several items have popped up recently about clinical trials, funding and connecting patients and researchers.

Where I work, there are pamphlets in all the clinical areas for patients explaining clinical trials and research in this institution. There are classes titled : Answering your questions about clinical trials" offered weekly and we have just produced a new DVD for patients on the topic as well.

The Wall Street Journal published an article titled : Matchmakers: patients meet clinical trials that covers what clinical trials are all about and some online sites beyond ClinicalTrials.gov for those seeking a trial to participate in. I plan to take a look at some of them soon, but the article describes one in particular, EmergingMed.com, that offers personalized, individualized help and is quite intriguing from a health 2.0 perspective.

Also from the article:

According to the nonprofit Coalition of Cancer Cooperative Groups, only 3% of U.S. adults with cancer participate in clinical trials -- far too few to determine many experimental procedures' true effectiveness. Nearly 200,000 newly diagnosed patients may be eligible each year to participate in a cancer treatment trial but only 50,000 patients do so, the group says.