by Amanda Conschafter, blog editor
In a new BIOtechNOW blog post, Coalition for Clinical Trials Awareness (CCTA) steering committee members explain how stalled clinical trials stifle patients’ hope for breakthrough medicines. Authored by Catherine Rice of the International Essential Tremor Foundation and Andrew Spiegel of the Global Colon Cancer Association, the post describes both the challenge of under-enrolled clinical trials and CCTA’s proposed solution:
Across disease states, health care professionals and advocates agree that stagnated, under-enrolled clinical trials cannot continue. Many of us have come together through The Coalition for Clinical Trials Awareness to propose an intriguing solution: a federally-sponsored public awareness campaign on the value of clinical trials.
The concept is not a novel one. You may recall the federal campaign of the 1990s that encouraged Americans to consider organ donation. More recently, the Department of Homeland Security initiated “If You See Something, Say Something™” to raise public awareness on responding to security threats.
Now we need to put that model to work once again, this time for the benefit of patients who suffer unnecessarily because stalled clinical trials delay vital treatments. We envision a campaign that interweaves social media networks, television, radio, internet and print media to answer the public’s most basic questions. What is a clinical trial? Should I participate? Why does it matter?
Read the full post on BIOtechNOW to learn more.
