Method - Efficient and effective conduct of clinical trials

Clinical trials help doctors and patients to make better healthcare decisions. The way that a trial is done and the data collected and checked effects the cost of the trial and also directly effects the confidence we can have in its results. Unfortunately, many of the methods that we use to run trials are not based on high quality evidence.

We aim to find better and evidenced based ways of running trials more effectively. Trials can also be very expensive, so we are looking at ways we can make them more cost-effective. For example, we want to understand where and how a patients routine medical records can be used to get quicker and cheaper access to data for trials and where this is not possible.

Academic organisations often investigate new treatments in diseases which are not a priority for the company that has developed that new treatment. We therefore need better ways in which the results of trials being done by academic organisations can be used by regulatory authorities to improve the speed at which these new treatments can be approved and licensed for use in patients with these diseases.