Clinical Trials Staff Keen for More After Innovative Workshop

The Trials Without Tribulations workshop at the Westmead Innovation Centre on September 15 was attended by a capacity audience of 160 people after being significantly oversubscribed.

Attendee Frances Daley, who is a project manager with an osteoarthritis clinical research group at the University of Sydney, said there was “a real buzz about the day.”

“It was really well organised, and I appreciated the opportunity to connect with colleagues new and old around common concerns in the field of clinical trials,” she said. “The sessions on audit and more diverse participants in clinical trials were particularly relevant and helpful to me.”

The workshop mixed presentations with group activities, and most of the program was delivered by senior staff from across Sydney Health Partners' organisations.

Suchit Handa from the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care gave the opening address on initial learnings from the roll-out of the National Clinical Trials Accreditation Framework.

Other sessions included the need to plan and prepare for external audits, budgeting for industry-sponsored studies and strategies for getting paid for common hidden costs and improving the recruitment of participants from more diverse backgrounds.

During a closing summation, Professor Manuela Ferreira from the Kolling Institute described the workshop as a very valuable opportunity for information exchange.

“Clinical trials staff rarely get the opportunity to compare notes with people doing the same or similar jobs elsewhere,” she said. “The main thing we heard across the day was the need for more consistency – in processes and procedures across clinical trials sites.”