Calling all Patients!

Will someone please explain this to me: Clinical trials are the modern tool for finding truths about preventing and treating cancer. Yet our system puts obstacles in the path of clinicians who might participate in designing and running trials and in the path of patients who might enroll in trials.

In yesterday's post, I introduced the problem of underfunded and inefficient clinical trials in America. The referenced Report Brief of the Institute of Medicine mentions some of the obstacles to participation in trials:

• Clinical investigators are inadequeatly reimbursed for the costs of participating.
• Collaborative work is not rewarded.
• In academia, clinical investigation is valued less than basic research or patient care.
• Insurance reimbursement of patients' expenses incurred in trials is inconsistent.

The report, subtitled "Compressing the Time Line for Clinical Trials Activation" (i.e., shortening the time from proposing an idea for a trial to beginning the trial) offers practical solutions that promise to have a side benefit of weeding out weak trials so money and people-power are focused on strong trials.

Healthy Survivors learn about clinical trials that might be of value in our personal health journey. And some, like me, do what we can in our personal worlds to spread the word about the value of clinical trials and the need to support efforts to improve efficiency in the system.