Dateline DFCI
New service offers patients and researchers more details about clinical trials for emerging cancer therapies
Patients and families seeking information about clinical trials for new cancer treatments now have a fast and easy way to learn about such studies being conducted at Dana-Farber and its affiliates.
A new Web-based service that went "live" this past April provides details to help patients determine which studies apply to their conditions — and to help investigators recruit patient volunteers and educate other health-care providers about their clinical research. It is available online at www.dana-farber.org/res/clinical/ through the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center site at www.dfhcc.org, or through a toll-free call center at (866) 790-4500.
General information about trials at Dana-Farber and its partner institutions has long been included on DFCI's website, but until now the system lacked specific eligibility criteria for individual trials — which test the effectiveness of new treatments. The situation has resulted in many unnecessary calls around the Institute, frustrating patients and researchers alike.
"We're getting up to 100 calls a month, and the volume is still rising," says Courtney Hudson, CEO/founder of EmergingMed, the New York company managing the service. It hosts similar systems for the American Cancer Society and other organizations with high online traffic.
Visitors to the site find summaries of clinical trials listed by disease type. Patients may fill out a questionnaire about their diagnosis, disease stage, metastases, etc.; when they submit this profile, the system calls up the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center studies for which they qualify. If none exist, the service shows matches from its database of more than 3,000 trials run by other centers, individual doctors' offices, and other locations nationwide. Callers to the toll-free line are walked personally through the same information.
"This new service is definitely an improvement," reports Sharon Lane, RN, MSN, OCN, Dana-Farber's director of clinical trials operations. "Now we have a better way to help patients make decisions about participating in studies. The system is evolving, and we look forward to incorporating the pediatric trials as well."
Clinical trial summaries are now available on the Institute's website at www.dana-farber.org/res/clinical/.
