[gajr]

IS THERE ANY CLINICAL STUDIES IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA AT THIS TIME ,OR IN THE FUTURE?

[Brady Barrows]

gajr, on Jan 11 2008, 03:38 AM, said:

IS THERE ANY CLINICAL STUDIES IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA AT THIS TIME ,OR IN THE FUTURE?

I am not aware of any. Here are some links to search if there are any in Florida:

Center Watch

Google Search

[Joel T Bamford MD]

gajr, on Jan 11 2008, 08:38 AM, said:

IS THERE ANY CLINICAL STUDIES IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA AT THIS TIME ,OR IN THE FUTURE?

Thanks for the great question. Today a quick google gives: This is by volunteers such as RRDi rosaceans but volunteers in studies. It does list offerings of studies by state. The US government site: ClinicalTrials.gov/ is another site.

How do we find participants: We ask patients as they come to the office and offer a current study OR advertise in many ways. The NIH and other centers send notices to physicians (such as "We would like to find participants with X for a 3 month study of a new topical medication. Please contact phone# or department."). Newspapers, radio and TV, though with rosacea, word of mouth has been efficient and much less expensive!

I would like to add a comment about quality of evidence which is available. Respected journals now require that authors, who wish to publish the findings of carefully done research, publish their protocol before they begin the study. This should insure honesty in evaluating any data.
Without such a safeguard, a researcher might choose accept some results and discard others (only report those associations which confirmed their beliefs

You will find one such listing of protocols placed on the web, before studies begin, at ClinicalTrials.gov Hopefully this type of transparency in how the study was developed, the thinking, those 'end points' which were to be used in determining the effect of an intervention would be written in stone. The next question would be, "Of those who read or depend (pts/doctors) on the results, who takes a look at the previously published protocol in conjunction with reading the final article" to see how faithful researchers were to their plan.

For three years (ending last year) I offered a significant reward to the editors two journals. Their editors thought the proposal was something they had thought of but they were not ready to jump in, at least with the amount I could give. I think it would be quite expensive/logisticaly hard but of great value.

I suggested that another requirement for publication would be a willingness of the authors to be subjected to an after publication visit by several experienced researchers. One article from the journal's last year would be randomly selected for the evaluation. The evaluation would be published and state how faithfully the study was done (after seeing the individual records and interviewing one or two subjects of the study). Having been a reviewer for 10 years for 5 journals, I believe some well written, data filled articles would show significant problems. Such evaluations would make future authors more likely to follow their own protocols.

The Cochrane Library contains high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. It includes reliable evidence from Cochrane and other systematic reviews, clinical trials, and more. Cochrane reviews bring you the combined results of the worldís best medical research studies, and are recognised as the gold standard in evidence-based health care. This is the permier site for evidence-based medicine. They welcome consumers and search out some to help rewrite reviews in terms lay people can better understand.

Please recognize these reviews must be delayed until many studies reach publication

.

Many effective treatments have only one or two studies or not been known long enough to recieve the seal of 'gold standard'.

Far more treatments are not in the reviews because no adequate studies have ever reported in print/or (now) On-Line journal been published!