People from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds are still underrepresented in clinical trials.
We know it can be hard for our patients to understand what clinical trials are, especially when English isn’t their first language. Around 39,000 of our community speak a language other than English at home, so it’s important to us that we break down barriers to ensure everyone in our community can understand the benefits clinical trials offer.
Today, we have 95 clinical trials open across 15 disease disciplines – Allied Health (e.g. physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology etc), Anaesthesia, Cardiology (heart), Community Health, Emergency Medicine, Haematology (blood), Healthy Ageing, Infectious Diseases, Intensive Care, Neurology (brain and nerves), Oncology (cancer), Paediatrics (children), Renal (kidneys), Surgery, and Thoracic Medicine (lungs).
While the majority of our clinical trials are conducted at Frankston Hospital, we further reduced the travel burden for our Mornington Peninsula patients with cancer by opening a clinical trials centre next to Rosebud Hospital in 2021.
Clinical trials are a way for patients to try the latest medicines and treatments that have shown promising results. They can help your health now and the health of the next generation. Patients on trials say they like the very close care they receive in a clinical trial.
We continue to strengthen our clinical trial expertise and recently welcomed Associate Professor Mahesh Iddawela as Head of Oncology and Oncology Research, and Associate Professor Marcus Robertson as Head of Gastroenterology (digestive system) and Hepatology (liver).
Over the last four years, our cancer clinical trial unit has achieved some impressive results such as having the highest number of patients in Australia on three international studies – a breast cancer, an advanced renal cell carcinoma trial, and a genitourinary (urinary and genital organs) trial, and we were the first hospital globally to screen a patient for an endometrial cancer trial.
Peninsula Health’s Director of Research, Professor Velandai Srikanth said clinical trials are vital to patient care.
“We’ve been conducting clinical trials here for almost 40 years because they are the only way to find the next best treatment for our patients. All current medicines and treatments were once a clinical trial, but we’re always looking for the next best treatment for our patients.”
“Our goal at Peninsula Health is to ensure that every patient, regardless of background, has equal access to the opportunities and benefits that clinical trials offer our community,” he said.
Visit our clinical trials web section here.