UT Health Science Center is part of new way to participate in medical research studies
David McPherson, M.D.
The service lets people learn about studies at 40 of the 46 institutions in the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) consortium, which was created in 2006 to enhance the translation of laboratory discoveries into patient treatments. The consortium is led by the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The CTSA program at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston is participating in ResearchMatch. The program is called the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS) and is operated with The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System.
“The CTSA programs are designed to overcome the barriers arising when major research advances are taken into clinical practice in patients. ResearchMatch is an initiative that is breaking down one of these barriers,” said David McPherson, M.D., executive director of the CCTS and James T. and Nancy B. Willerson Chair in the Department of Internal Medicine at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston.
ResearchMatch is the first national, disease-neutral, not-for-profit volunteer recruitment registry, said Kirstin Scott, program manager for ResearchMatch, which was developed by the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. The Web site has started enrolling volunteers and plans to begin matching volunteers with researchers early next year.
“Participant recruitment continues to be a significant barrier to the completion of research studies nationwide — recent NIH data indicates that just 4 percent of the U.S. population has participated in clinical trials,” said NCRR Director Barbara Alving, M.D. “ResearchMatch is a tool that can improve the connection and communication between potential participants and researchers providing opportunities for the public to contribute to advancing new treatments.”
Clinical trials are studies involving volunteers to determine if potential treatments should be approved for wider use. Only treatments having acceptable safety profiles and showing the most promise may be considered for human use, the Food and Drug Administration reports.
The Web site is a win-win situation. Volunteers, some with rare and hard-to-treat conditions, can access the latest research studies. Researchers can offer opportunities to participate in research studies to a wide database of volunteers. There is no cost to register and there is no obligation to participate in any study.
After an individual has self-registered as a volunteer, ResearchMatch’s security features ensure personal information is protected until volunteers authorize the release of their contact information to a specific study that may be of interest to them, Scott said. Volunteers are notified electronically when they are a possible match and decide whether to release their contact information.
“This is a good example of CTSA institutions working together,” said Madelene J. Ottosen, R.N., associate director of the Clinical Trials Resource Center at the CCTS. “With a built-in network, the implementation of this large project was able to extend across 40 institutions nationwide within a year of development.”
“Recruiting study volunteers can be a hit-or-miss endeavor,” Ottosen said. “Researchers often run advertisements in newspapers and on the radio to recruit volunteers. Investigators also rely heavily on physicians to tell their patients about studies.”
While the traditional approach may work for studies involving common conditions like high blood pressure, it may be less effective in situations in which a small, specific set of individuals is needed, she added. “ResearchMatch can help,” said Ottosen, who added that more than 1,000 research studies are ongoing at the UT Health Science Center and Memorial Hermann – Texas Medical Center, one of the university’s teaching hospitals.
ResearchMatch is not just limited to recruiting for clinical trials. Volunteers may also complete surveys and participate in other research, Scott said.
Ottosen said ResearchMatch could be a good resource for the parents of children with special needs. “We get lots of phone calls about trials for autism. This would be a way parents could find out about participating in new studies,” she said.
For the first year of the project, only researchers affiliated with participating CTSA institutions may be eligible to utilize ResearchMatch, but plans exist to ensure the recruitment tool will be available beyond the CTSA consortium by 2011, Scott said.
Popularity: 4% [?]
