Medical study boost
CLINICAL trials company Nucleus Network held an open day on Friday for its first regional satellite clinic, on Ryrie St, Geelong.
The clinic, across from the Geelong hospital precinct, will allow residents of the region to attend appointments locally to determine their eligibility for a study as well as follow-up visits.
Previously, Geelong residents would need to travel to appointments at Nucleus Network’s Melbourne clinic.
Participation in a clinical trial typically has three main stages: a screening appointment to assess eligibility, inpatient stays for safety observation after dosing and safety follow-up visits.
Participants will still undertake the dosing and inpatient portions of the studies at Nucleus Network’s Melbourne clinical trial facility in The Alfred hospital precinct.
Nucleus Network is Australia’s largest phase one clinical trials provider.
Chief operating officer Charlotte Hall said the organisation had been looking for an appropriate regional site to establish a satellite clinic for “quite a while now”.
“We have had a lot of interest from people in the Greater Geelong region about how they can join a clinical trial with us,” she said.
“Up until now it has often meant an inconvenient trip into Melbourne for the screening and outpatient appointments.
“With this clinic, we wanted to streamline the process and make it easier for all the people who put their hands up to take part in this important research.” The Geelong clinic adds to the company’s clinics in Melbourne, Brisbane and Minneapolis, in the US.
The Covid-19 pandemic has created increased interest in clinical trials.
“Early-phase clinical trials need healthy volunteers to get an initial baseline on how the medication is processed in a person, before moving on to people with the condition at a later phase,” Ms Hall said.
“We are a phase one clinical trial provider, so most trials require healthy people without a chronic health condition, but their participation can help many other people suffering from conditions such as osteoporosis, MND and dementia.
“Participants can select which trial they want to be involved in, and we often hear that people are choosing particular studies that may one day help someone they care about who has that condition.”
Participants are reimbursed for their participation time.
Nucleus Network is recruiting healthy volunteers for several trials through the Geelong clinic, including treatment for diseases of the central nervous system and a potential new treatment for non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis, a chronic inflammatory disease.