For the first time clinicians and patients can quickly access details of all recruiting haematology trials across both Australia and New Zealand, following the launch of a new version of the ClinTrial Refer App.
ClinTrial Refer ANZ is the first national database of its kind in the world; unique in the way it sources up-to-date data from local networks of trial units to facilitate patient recruitment.
It complements local ClinTrial Refer Apps that already supply current lists of haematology trials in each state and in NZ.
“This is a tool that everyone has wanted and we’ve been able to produce with no extra effort,” one of the creators Ms Roslyn Ristuccia, Clinical Research Unit Manager at St George Hospital in Sydney, told the limbic.
“Each of the individual Apps existed so by putting them together we’ve now been able to deliver to Australia and New Zealand current, comprehensive information in one spot.”
Ms Ristuccia believes patients in particular will welcome the opportunity to review trials throughout Australia and NZ, noting that they are often prepared to travel to participate in trials but in the past found it very difficult to find out what trials were available.
Since being launched by the Haematology Clinical Research Network in NSW/ACT in 2013, the original ClinTrial Refer App has significantly increased hospital cross-referral rates and boosted patient recruitment by more than 50%.
According to Ms Ristuccia there have also been more trials opened in NSW, and she believes this is being repeated across Australia.
“We think that companies are bringing more clinical trials to Australia because now they know more about the different clinical trial units across Australia and New Zealand,” she said.
With 12 ClinTrial Refer Apps already available for haematology and other tumour streams, attention is now shifting to using the recruitment initiative in other disease areas with the hope of replicating the success.
“The App can very easily be modified to suit different disease groups,” Ms Ristuccia said.