I have been working in the Clinical Research field for more than 20 years. When the subject of my career comes up in everyday conversation I find that a lot of people are surprised about what I do. I guess they expect someone in my line of work to look and act more like Amy Farrah Fowler, a character on The Big Bang Theory TV show (Google it, if you don’t know Amy!).
Acquaintances are curious about my line of work, but their casual curiosity can shift to urgent questioning as illustrated when I get the following question: “How do I find a clinical trial for my sister (brother, aunt, neighbor, etc.) who has just been diagnosed with diabetes (cancer, multiple sclerosis, atrial fibrillation, etc.)”? The best advice I have is to first search internet sites that are independent of any particular research institution or company.
The initial website I always direct people to is www.clinicaltrials.gov. which is part of the National Institutes of Health(NIH). This site is a worldwide listing of all clinical studies (and eventually, results) involving human subjects. In fact, studies occurring in theUnited States must, by law, be listed on this website. As of this writing, clinicaltrials.gov lists 153,948 studies with locations in all 50 states and in 185 countries. Disclaimer: not every study listed will be actively recruiting participants – some studies will be completed and some will not yet be started – but the study status is noted on the website. The clinicaltrials.gov homepage includes links to tutorials on how to search for studies, and it really is quite intuitive. For example, searching for local studies is as simple as typing “diabetes and Corvallis” in the Search for Studies box.
Although all studies should by law be listed on clinicaltrials.gov, there are a couple of other clinical trial search websites that offer tons of supporting information; I recommend www.centerwatch.com, and www.SearchClinicalTrials.com. In addition, the National Cancer Institute, which is part of NIH, maintains a website specific for cancer trials, and the web address for this is www.cancer.gov.
Lastly, anyone considering participation in a clinical trial ought to spend time reading information provided by The Center for Information & Study on Clinical Research Participation at www.ciscrp.org. This website is probably the most patient-friendly website for gathering information about the clinical trial process.
– Julie Carrico is Associate Coordinator of The Corvallis Clinic Clinical Research Center
