Site helps visitors find trials

With a paucity of participants in clinical trials among the factors in lengthening the development timeline for new drugs, contract research giant Quintiles has opened ClinicalResearch.com, an Internet site that simplifies the process of finding a trial.

"Research shows that 75 percentof the public state they have little or no knowledge of clinical research and the participation process," says Chris Cabell, head of global access to patients, in an announcement. "If patients and their families are more aware of the opportunities, they will be better able to make informed decisions about participating."

Site visitors can identify ongoing and future trials related to their disease or condition and narrow them down to those that are geographically feasible. Supporting information about clinical research includes videos describing patient experiences and news from recent studies.

Internet sites aren't the only tool helping investigators get their trials off the ground. As reported earlier, an iPhone application debuted in August from start-up Healogica, which has developed a monster.com-like matching service for investigators and would-be subjects. And in April, healthcare IT start-up TrialX launched an application that allows Twitter users to find trials.

- see the release
- visit the Internet site
- here's our Healogica coverage
- read the TrialX item