Riding In Cars With Researchers

Today we are going to continue our conversation of balanced scorecards for research sites and we will specifically talk today about the enrollment metric.  The enrollment metric is the most important metric you need to be following if you are a site.  We will get into why, how you can track it, and what you can do about it.

A follow-up to Virtual Trials, Part 1, Dr. Kingsley continues his discussion on how virtual clinical trials are revolutionizing research.  Find out what's driving this innovation.

Revolutionizing research is all about making the process better of how we do research - to benefit patients, physicians, to enhance how quickly we are able to help patients in need, and innovate faster in healthcare.  That’s what revolutionizing research is about.  Many times it is not about the little things we do to make it better, it’s about the dramatic things we can do. The use of virtual trials is just one way we can revolutionize research!

Research changes lives!  No advancements in medicine happen without clinical research trials.  Dr. Kingsley gives an amazing example of how powerful research can be.

Today we are going to interview Felicia Irvin, who is Director of Sales and Marketing for IACT Health, a multi-specialty research site.  She has about a decade of experience in finding patients for research trials.  She talks to Dr. Kingsley about recruitment methods and strategies.

Today we are going to talk about money or patient compensation.  Did you know that when you participate in research trials, you are compensated for your time in a research trial? When you go to see your regular physician, you pay your physician.  When you see a research physician, the research physician pays you.  Not kidding.  It’s one of the reasons why I love research.  The model is flipped on its head.  We get to spend more time with patients, we get to teach more, we get to deliver more comprehensive healthcare, and we pay the patients.

Why do we use placebos in clinical research trials?  This is a big concern for some patients but you should know if we should be treating you with something, we will.  It is unethical and malpractice not to do so. 

Nothing happens in healthcare without research.  Nothing happens, no new innovations in healthcare happens, without the clinical trial process.  If you invent the cure for cancer today, it will be 20 years before it reaches patients who desperately need it.  And that is way too long!  The majority of that time is wasted on struggling to find patients for research trials.  This is largely due to the fact that neither patients nor physicians are aware of the trials being conducted.  A recent cardiology trial got downgraded as a result the results will be weaker than they could have been.  And this was strictly due to the fact that they could not find enough patients for the research trial after 7 years of trying!  We need to fix that!  Without the patients, new innovations and treatments never happen.