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Describing the public health benefits of promoting patient participation, Kenneth Getz at the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, James Kremidas at Eli Lilly and Company, Elizabeth Carfioli of Ogilvy Healthworld Consulting (US) and Rachael Butlin at Fast4wD Ogilvy (UK) challenge public perceptions of clinical trials A GLOBAL PROBLEM
Clinical research is essential for developing treatments that improve public health. Without it, many medical advances that ease human suffering, offer better treatment options and even cure life-threatening illnesses would never have been introduced.
Despite the high importance of clinical research and the access to investigational new treatments that it affords, patient participation rates are low. As few as 10 per cent of eligible patients in the US participate in clinical trials (1) – a figure that is only slightly higher than other parts of the world, which sit at an overall participation rate of only six to eight per cent of eligible patients (2). Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly investing in communication programmes to ensure awareness and knowledge of the studies that they are conducting and, ultimately, to increase patient participation in clinical trials. |
