AUSTRALIAN TELETRIAL PROGRAM REACHES SIGNIFICANT MILESTONES IN TRIALS AND PARTICIPANTS From origins in Townsville to being national program across multiple disease states and populations
Filmed in Brisbane & Townsville, Queensland and Darwin, Northern Territory | November 2024
Launched in 2022, the Australian Teletrial Program is an initiative designed to improve access to clinical trials for people living in regional and remote areas of Australia. It uses telemedicine and digital technologies to enable patients to participate in clinical trials without needing to travel long distances to major metropolitan centres, which can often be a barrier to participation for those in rural and isolated locations.
The program connects patients with researchers, medical professionals, and trial coordinators via video consultations and telehealth tools. This allows patients to receive treatment and follow-up care from their local healthcare providers, while still participating in high-quality clinical research.
Key Features of the Australian Teletrial Program:
- Remote Access to Trials: It facilitates the inclusion of patients from regional and remote areas who would otherwise have difficulty accessing clinical trials due to distance or travel constraints.
- Collaboration: The program involves partnerships between local healthcare providers, hospitals, research institutions, and trial sponsors. This collaborative model ensures that patients receive the best care and support throughout the trial process.
- Digital Health Technologies: Telehealth technologies, such as video conferencing, remote monitoring, and digital data collection, are used to manage patient care and ensure compliance with trial protocols.
- Widening Participation: It aims to diversify and increase the representation of regional and rural populations in clinical trials, which is important for trial results to include the broader population.
The Teletrial Program is part of a broader effort to improve the inclusivity and accessibility of medical research across Australia, ensuring that individuals, regardless of their location, have the opportunity to participate in cutting-edge clinical trials.
Recently Australian Health Journal met with Kaye Hewson, Director, Australian Teletrials Program, who spoke about the program’s recent achievements:
- Being a proven program outside of oncology, with clinical specialties such as respiratory, cardiac, diabetes, sexual health, mental health filling a gap in service and equity.
- In regional, rural and remote places, with adults and paediatrics involved in the program, a higher than national average participation rate of clinical trials by First Nations peoples in satellite locations.
- Savings of time, money and distance for those patients to satellite sites.
- Having over a thousand participants in teletrials across the six jurisdictions.
- Established collaborative and supportive mechanism and network around education and training.
Australian Health Journal also spoke with Melanie Poxton, Assistant Director of Nursing at the program’s Queensland Regional Clinical Trials Coordinating Centre (QRCCC) in Townsville University Hospital, North Queensland and Heather Parker, the Northern Territory Australian Teletrial Program Manager with NT Health.
Produced in collaboration with the Australian Teletrial Program.
-
Thyroid health into pregnancy
‘Without an adequate amount of thyroid hormone mothers can be exposed to hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, including gestational hypertension and preeclampsia or eclampsia, which affect around 10% of pregnant women and are the leading causes of maternal and neonatal mortality worldwide. Mothers who suffer from hypertensive disorders during pregnancy are at increased risk of long-term cardiovascular consequences and hypertensive disorders in subsequent pregnancies. Evidence also indicates a risk of reduced cognitive ability to their offspring.
‘Knowing if you are genetically predisposed to Hashimoto’s or Graves’ Diseases, which are both thyroid autoimmune disorders is important to be aware of, to ensure all appropriate tests are ordered. Autoimmune disorders may predispose mothers to a thyroid problem during pregnancy’, says Professor Creswell Eastman, who also serves as the ATF’s Principal Medical Advisor.
-
Cardiologist broadens Tasmania’s surgical abilities
Dr Heath Adams is a Tasmanian born, bred and educated interventional and structural cardiologist who works at Hobart Private and Royal Hobart Hospital and is a researcher through the Menzies Research Institute.
Dr Adams clinical interest and expertise is in the management of aortic stenosis, valvular heart disease and acute coronary syndromes. Dr Adams performs coronary interventions including stenting, and structural heart interventions including TAVI, mitral edge to edge repair, mitral valve replacement and left atrial appendage closure. In 2020, Heath performed the first TAVI in Tasmania, is the clinical lead for the local program at the Royal Hobart Hospital and is a nationally accredited TAVI practitioner.
-
In development, age specific clinical practice guidelines for early onset bowel cancer
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has agreed to consider for approval the Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Early Diagnosis and Management of Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer (EOCRC), to be developed by Bowel Cancer Australia in collaboration with the Australian Living Evidence Collaboration (ALEC), and funded by Bowel Cancer Australia. ALEC is led by Cochrane Australia and based in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University.
