Clinical trials are essential in developing new, improved, and more effective treatments and interventions. Without trials, researchers and professionals in the field cannot properly determine whether these new treatments and interventions are safe and effective.
Furthermore, when larger group testing occurs, this allows researchers to identify and ensure that any improvements resulting from the intervention occurs for as many people as possible and are not just occurring in one individual.
Ahead of the J.P. Morgan Health Conference in San Francisco in January 2023, Australian Health Journal met with Clinials CEO & Founder Maree Beare about developing the next generation recruitment platform and digital marketing service for clinical research. Maree talks about the reasons why clinical trials can fail and the importance of bringing participants much more closer to researchers.
With this need, the Clinials platform is geared towards patient centric trials and reducing site burden. The aim is to accelerate lifesaving medicines coming to market by connecting participants and researchers. The platform allows participants to come to researchers with their eligibility in hand among other capabilities.
Supporting CRO’s, sites and sponsors, the Clinials platform uses AI to convert complex trial protocol into plain language and pre-screening questions. This gives researchers the tools to communicate with their participants meaningfully. The plain language text can be used in a variety of situations like researcher led advertising, landing pages and plain language summaries.
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Message from former Australian Health Minister Hon Greg Hunt
The Honourable Greg Hunt served in the Australian Government as Minster for Health and Aged Care from 2017, previously as Industry, Innovation and Science Minister and before that the Environment Minister.
Elected as the Member for Flinders in 2001, Greg announced his retirement from politics late 2021 and in 2022, ahead of the Federal Election, having completed 20 years as a public servant.
Australian Health Journal recently caught up with Greg in a relaxed interview at his home in the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria to hear how a 9 month sabbatical has allowed him to focus on family, fitness and future. This has even included some “brutal spin cycle classes!”.
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Building capacity with job-ready clinical trial interns
The Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre Alliance, or VCCC Alliance for short, is a Victorian partnership of 10 research, academic and clinical institutions looking at improving cancer outcomes for patients.
The VCCC Alliance SKILLED clinical trial internships program is a pathway for scientists to build role-specific clinical trial knowledge, experience and in a clinical trials unit through theoretical and on-the-job training. The internship program is a 40 week intensive program to get science student interns job ready for clinical trial assistant and study coordinator internship roles.
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Supporting the mental health of the Australian health care workforce
Tara Hurster, is the CEO of The TARA Clinic and a psychologist who started working within the area of addiction in 2010. The TARA clinic, short for Therapeutic Addiction Recovery Assistance, recently started offering online programs to overcome and recover from addiction.
Tara spoke with Australian Health Journal about the early warning signs of anxiety and stress in health staff and executives, including irritability, changes in sleep patterns and diet leading to more serious mental health decline. These behaviours and symptoms increase the risk of substance abuse that could take the form of excessive smoking, drinking alcohol and drug use, porn, sex and gambling.
