Palliative Care Clinical Trials Activity in non-Metropolitan settings – opportunities for growth
Background
Clinical trials are important for the continued development of quality evidence-based interventions in palliative medicine. Barriers exist for patients accessing palliative care clinical trials, including factors related to clinical conditions, geography and trial availability and even more so in regional areas.
Methods
To inform development and expansion of Palliative Care regional clinical trials capacity, a baseline census of clinical trials activity in eight regional Victorian Palliative Care services was undertaken.
A brief survey was electronically distributed to the clinical director of Palliative Care services at each service to assess current involvement in clinical trials prior to planning increased service support and targeted trial development initiatives.
Results
Overall while responses indicated interest for involvement in palliative/supportive care research, they also highlighted that actual engagement with clinical research was minimal or absent in the regional centres surveyed. For those services engaged with clinical trials, no patients had been recruited in the previous 12 months.
Conclusion
This census demonstrated opportunities across regional Palliative Care service providers for engagement with palliative/supportive care research.
While there is evidence to support patient interest in engagement with palliative and supportive care clinical trials, there are currently limited resources in place accessing such trials for patients receiving care in regional Victoria. The ReViTALISE palliative and supportive care project stream aims to facilitate improved access to address the discrepancy in clinical trials opportunities for regional Palliative Care patients.