It was great to attend the Outsourcing in Clinical Trials UK and Ireland conference in London on 6th September, organised by Arena International Events Group. Lord O’Shaughnessy presented a great summary of his review of Commercial Clinical Trials.
One of the first slides acknowledged examples of excellence in recent times which included the work of the COVID Vaccines Taskforce, of which I was proud to be a part. Lord O’Shaughnessy covered the 8 problems we need to address and the solutions that will be applied including some great collaborative initiatives between the NHS, NIHR and Sponsors.
In summary, recommendations included improving start-up times for clinical trials in the NHS, improving transparency and accountability by tracking and reporting metrics, prioritising and incentivising commercial clinical trials in the UK from the top down, improving the profile of clinical trials in doctor/patient interactions, capitalising on the data assets in the NHS and conducting more studies in primary care.
These initiatives will help to make the UK a desirable place to conduct clinical studies following the 44% reduction in the number of clinical trials taking place in the UK over the last 5 years.
It was also great to catch up with old friends, new colleagues and important stakeholders at the conference too. I am looking forward to next years conference.
You can view the final report by Lord O’Shaughnessy here
#UKclincialtrials #lordoshaughnessy #OCT2023 #commercialclinicaltrials
