Have you ever heard about someone participating in the trial of a new medicine or a new treatment for something and wished you’d known about it too? It’s always been a bit of a challenge for researchers to find the people they need to participate in their clinical trials. At the same time, it hasn’t been easy for patients to find out what new options might be in this final phase of testing, especially if their own doctor wasn’t aware of them.
It looks like this challenge will be a thing of the past now. For the first time, the hundreds of clinical trials of medications and treatments taking place across Australia are now accessible to the public on a new government website: www.AustralianClinicalTrials.gov.au
The website allows you to search via key words and other relevant information to discover what trials are taking place and whether you can participate. And there are many!
For instance, we searched for trials relating to ‘eyes’ in NSW and found there are 32 underway, with 10 currently recruiting members of the public to participate.
One example we found is the Laser Intervention in Early Age-Related Macular Degeneration (LEAD) Study, which I am personally interested in.
The challenge for researchers
It seems that researchers are frequently struggling to get enough participants in trials. When launching the website yesterday (it was International Clinical Trials Day in case you didn’t know!] the Minister for Health, Sussan Ley, pointed out that just under half of all Phase 3* clinical trials conducted in Australia are successful in meeting their patient recruitment targets.
Not being able to recruit enough participants is considered one of the main reasons for a seven per cent decline in the number of trials conducted in Australia from 2012 to 2013.
Ms Ley said participating in clinical trials offers patients access to new trial therapies, offering them hope at a time when other avenues may have already been exhausted.
The website allows patients to also make contact with the head researcher via email, which could be extremely valuable for people in difficult medical situations keen to learn potential outcomes.
*Phase three trials are the final phase of testing prior to the official release of a new drug or therapy where testing is conducted among a large number of patients in the community.
