The News Review:

- Lawmakers Detail Medical Research Sting: Company Was a Real Dog
- Clinical Conductor Site Clinical Trial Management System (CTMS …
- DaVita Abstracts Accepted Into National Kidney Foundation’s 2009 …
- Research Undiscoveries
- Community Research Chooses AmeriStart to Promote Phase 1 – 2a …
- Now’s time to reinvigorate country’s War on Cancer
- Panel discuses goals for new health sciences alliance

Lawmakers Detail Medical Research Sting: Company Was a Real Dog
Wall Street Journal Blogs
A congressional committee’s sting operation into medical research – one that included a fake company with a fake surgical adhesive to be used in a fake clinical trial – was detailed this morning at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing. The hearing focused on the need for more oversight by and of institutional review boards empowered by regulators to decide whether planned clinical research involving humans should be allowed to go ahead. The tale of the surgical adhesive has already been aired in a news release by the IRB in question — Coast IRB of Colorado — which approved the clinical trial five months before learning that the company. Both were created as part of the House committee’s.

Clinical Conductor Site Clinical Trial Management System (CTMS …
FXBusiness
Patient recruitment continues to be an area of concern for clinical trials. Clinical Conductor Site CTMS helps improve recruitment efficiency by providing the tools to leverage existing patient databases easily track advertising RI and implement web-based virtual recruitment. At Rochester Clinical Research “All aspects of recruiting have changed” states Pat Larrabee President and CE. “We target and manage our patient population and are quicker at identifying patients for studies even difficult ones. ” She adds “Clinical Conductor has changed where we put our advertising dollars. We know what’s working and what’s not. ” ther sites parallel this experience and some have even gained additional sponsor funding using metrics on the effectiveness of ads.
Related from Liabilitymanagementsystems: The Risk Management and Patient Safety Institute Announces Winter …

DaVita Abstracts Accepted Into National Kidney Foundation’s 2009 …
FXBusiness
Nissenson MD Chief Medical fficer at DaVita says “DaVita is continuing to lead the renal community in generating important new knowledge to improve the outcomes for patients with kidney disease. This commitment to high quality clinical research is clearly evident in the thirteen abstracts being presented at the National Kidney Foundation meeting this year. DaVita’s top ten clinical initiatives for 2009 include: striving for reduction of first-year mortality rates and reducing catheter use. At this year’s National Kidney Foundation Clinical Meeting DaVita will focus on several key research initiatives in the areas of CKD new incident dialysis patients and integrated pharmacy management. Highlights from these scheduled presentations will include: — Improved Results in CKD Management: Recent data reveals superior outcomes in the areas of CKD and mortality anemia incident patient management and phosphorus and coronary artery calcification. DaVita researchers note a nearly 50 percent drop in one-year mortality in Detroit area DaVita-managed CKD clinics compared to Renal Network 11 (12.

Research Undiscoveries
Miller-McCune.com
“In part this is because the ‘gold standard test’ a comparative clinical trial of smokers and non-smokers has never been conducted. Gauch describes that gold standard test as the “backbone of medical progress” and credits the clinical trial with increasing survival rates for breast uterine prostate and bladder cancer. Nevertheless the clinical trial has come under fire in recent years and in 2005 a prominent medical researcher controversially declared in the journal PLoS Medicine that most clinical research findings are false. While Gauch doesn’t go nearly that far the crux of his book is a discussion of the “seven deadly flaws” that comprise the clinical trials’ Achilles heel ranging from “the imperfect sample” to “the impractical result. ” In Gauch’s view the gold standard has lost a great deal of its luster over the past several decades as increasing influence from the pharmaceutical companies and venture capital firms that fund clinical studies causes serious conflicts of interest. “The relationships among industry scientific investigators and academic institutions are pervasive” he writes.

Community Research Chooses AmeriStart to Promote Phase 1 – 2a …
Business Wire (press release)
Community Research has completed hundreds of clinical trials in a variety of therapeutic indications and conducts about 70 new clinical trials annually. “We believe that adding AmeriStart to our business development team positions Community Research for continued success especially during these challenging economic times” says President David Mayleben PhD. “Community Research is a natural fit for AmeriStart” says Jim Worrell CE of AmeriStart. “Their deep expertise in key therapeutic areas tremendous database of patient populations and top-notch facilities in Cincinnati make them a standout in the CR industry. We are proud to represent them.

Now’s time to reinvigorate country’s War on Cancer
Houston Chronicle
More than half a million Americans lost their battle with cancer last year. Since the War on Cancer was declared in 1971 we have amassed a wealth of knowledge about the disease. Advances in basic and clinical research have improved treatments significantly. Some of the most important progress has been made in prevention and early detection particularly screening including mammography and colonoscopy. Though heightened awareness and prevention should be emphasized alone they don’t translate into adequate progress for those with cancer. Since 1971 the cancer mortality rate has decreased by only 6 percent. In the same period by contrast mortality rates have dramatically declined for heart disease (by 56 percent) and stroke (by 66 percent).

Panel discuses goals for new health sciences alliance
University of Delaware
“We have been able to bring in about $25 million in grants and are negotiating for an additional $17 million. ”Steiner also noted the importance of the Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (CBRE) program in which Delaware has been quite successful and the Clinical Translational Science Awards (CTSA) funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Research Resources. “This program draws on the National Institutes of Health’s earlier initiatives to re-engineer the clinical research enterprise one of the key objectives of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research” Steiner said. “A major goal of the Clinical Translational Science Awards initiative is to develop a national consortium of CTSA institutions that work together to transform the discipline of clinical and translational research across the country. ”Regional Clinical Translational Science Awards centers include the University of Pennsylvania the University of Pittsburg and Johns Hopkins University. “We think there should be one more CTSA center in the state of Delaware with Thomas Jefferson University and the Delaware Health Sciences Alliance” Steiner said. “In order for us to be successful on that end we established last summer the Delaware Valley Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (DVICTS).