The Michael J. Fox Foundation has only one definition of success: a cure for Parkinson’s disease. But how do we get to cures? One of the crucial steps on the path to developing new treatments for people with Parkinson’s is the process of clinical trials.
Last Monday, Glenn Braunstein, MD, chairman of the Department of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai wrote a blog entry for The Huffington Post discussing why clinical trials are so vital to developing new treatments across all diseases and what volunteers should know before participating. “Clinical trials still provide the safest and -- given the important potential for improving health for millions -- the fastest way to keep medicine moving forward,” wrote Braunstein. Despite this fact, 85% of trials face delays and 30% never even get off the ground because of a lack of volunteers.
Recognizing this need for clinical trial volunteers, MJFF launched Fox Trial Finder in April 2012 to help willing participants to connect with the trials that need them. Fox Trial Finder streamlines the flow of participants into clinical research to make a dent in the delays faced by trials today.
So far, over 11,000 volunteers have registered on www.foxtrialfinder.org, and more people are signing up every day. We at MJFF appreciate Dr. Braunstein’s sentiment that, “Many clinical trial participants, regardless of their reasons, are genuine altruists, and we need many, many more of them. We should be grateful to all who participate.”
If you’ve already signed up on Fox Trial Finder, thank you. If you’d like to, visit www.foxtrialfinder.org.
To read The Huffington Post Blog entry referenced in this post, click here.