The Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition (BCAC) welcomes the launch of a new website designed to make it easier to find out about clinical trials available in New Zealand.
The Clinical Trials Portal offers a quick and accessible way for the public, healthcare providers, clinicians and those in the pharmaceutical industry to gather information about clinical trials online.
The site explains what each trial aims to do, who is eligible and how the recruitment process works.
BCAC Chair Libby Burgess welcomes the new initiative.
“This is a great concept and an excellent start in making clinical trials more accessible to New Zealand patients. Clinical trials can be a vital source of hope to those who have been diagnosed with a serious illness or have someone close to them affected by cancer or other serious diseases,” Libby says.
"The information on this new website website will help to connect New Zealand patients with research and new therapies in a very tangible way."
Libby says she'd like to see the site develop a more user-friendly interface that makes it very easy for patients searching the site to find the trials that are potentially relevant for them, but she says this is a great start in providing patients with a very valuable resource.
Some trials are for new therapies that may be able to assist in treating serious diseases, such as breast cancer, when other options don’t appear to have worked.
However, the listed trials are not all for new medicines in development. Trials can also test a range of variables around diagnosis, surgery and medical devices.
Clinical trials can deliver benefits in a number of areas:
- early access to new and promising medicines or techniques for patients
- helping to recruit and retain health professionals
- producing cost savings for tax payers
- attracting international investment.
This clinical trials portal is part of the New Zealand Health Innovation Hub which is a partnership between four of New Zealand’s biggest District Health Boards: Auckland, Canterbury, Counties Manukau and Waitemata.
Established earlier this year, the New Zealand Health Innovation Hub will work to help grow New Zealand’s health technology industry and to support the adoption of innovations developed within the public health sector.
You can view breast cancer information on the NZ Clinical Trials Portal here and for more information about clinical trials and breast cancer visit BCAC’s clinical trials page.
