A snapshot of consumer engagement in clinical trials in Australia : results of a national survey of clinical trial networks and research organisations

Journal article


McKenzie, Anne, Bowden, Janelle, Zalcberg, John, Conroy, Karena, Fallon-Ferguson, Julia M., Jesudason, Shilpanjali, Ansell, James, Anderst, Ania and Straiton, Nicola. (2022). A snapshot of consumer engagement in clinical trials in Australia : results of a national survey of clinical trial networks and research organisations. Research Involvement and Engagement. 8(1), pp. 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40900-022-00338-w
AuthorsMcKenzie, Anne, Bowden, Janelle, Zalcberg, John, Conroy, Karena, Fallon-Ferguson, Julia M., Jesudason, Shilpanjali, Ansell, James, Anderst, Ania and Straiton, Nicola
Abstract

Background
Little is known about the extent, perceptions or experiences of consumers involved in clinical trials across Australia. The purpose of this National study was to better understand the activity and perceptions of clinical trial networks (CTNs), research co-ordinating centres and their consumers, around consumer involvement in clinical trials.

Methods
CTNs and research co-ordinating centres who were members of the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance (ACTA), and consumers involved in the activities of these organisations, were invited to participate in online surveys. Surveys were completed between April and September 2018.

Results
80 respondents completed the surveys in full: 25 of 34 CTNs, 5 from 15 research co-ordinating centres, and included research investigators of 13 active trials, 10 completed trials. There were 27 consumer respondents. Consumers were involved in clinical trial activities across 19/25 (76%) of CTNs and 3/5 (60%) of research co-ordinating centres. Consumers were involved at all stages of the trial cycle. Despite this, only 8/30 (27%) of research organisations provided specific training to their employees or members on consumer involvement in research, and most did not have a specific policy or process relating to conducting consumer involvement in clinical trials. At the organisation level, barriers to consumer involvement in clinical trials included being unsure how to involve consumers effectively and systematically, difficulty in accessing consumers or lack of infrastructure and resources. At the consumer level, barriers included limited understanding of their roles, a lack of resources and training. Enablers included education, training and funding for both the research sector and for consumers. Almost all consumer respondents (25/27; 92%) would recommend the consumer role to other potential consumers, stating it was a valuable experience that led to knowledge exchange and learning about the research process.

Conclusions
Over the last few years, consumer involvement in clinical trials has increased in Australia, but the scope of involvement varies across different research organisations, and therapeutic areas. Consumer involvement in clinical trials is valued by most that do it, however, there are opportunities to further foster and strengthen ongoing partnerships, for example by providing practical advice for researchers on how to best engage and involve consumers.

Keywordsclinical trials; consumer; community; involvement; research; Australia; network; patient and public involvement (PPI)
Year01 Jan 2022
JournalResearch Involvement and Engagement
Journal citation8 (1), pp. 1-10
PublisherBioMed Central Ltd.
ISSN2056-7529
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1186/s40900-022-00338-w
Web address (URL)https://researchinvolvement.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40900-022-00338-w#Ack1
Open accessOpen access
Research or scholarlyResearch
Page range1-10
Publisher's version
License
File Access Level
Open
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online05 Feb 2022
Publication process dates
Accepted20 Jan 2022
Deposited27 Nov 2024
Supplemental file
License
File Access Level
Open
Additional information

© The Author(s) 2022

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

This project received grant funding from the Australian Government.

Medical writing support was funded by ACTA in accordance with Good Publication Practice (GPP3) guidelines (http://www.ismpp.org/gpp3).

Place of publicationUnited Kingdom
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https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/91187/a-snapshot-of-consumer-engagement-in-clinical-trials-in-australia-results-of-a-national-survey-of-clinical-trial-networks-and-research-organisations

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