Clinical trials are research studies involving people aimed at evaluating a medical, surgical, or behavioral intervention. They are the primary way that researchers find out if a new treatment, like a new drug or diet, or medical device is safe and effective in people. Often, a clinical trial (under careful supervision) is used to learn if a new treatment is more effective and/or has less harmful side effects than the standard treatment.
There are many reasons why people choose to join a clinical trial. Some join a trial because the treatments they have tried for their health problem did not work. Others participate because there is no treatment for their health problems. By being part of a clinical trial, participants may find out about new treatments before they are widely available. In fact, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) believes that the best management of any patient with cancer is in a clinical trial. Participation in clinical trials is especially encouraged. Hundreds of thousands of people have been helped and are alive because other people chose to participate in a trial that resulted in a new, more effective treatment.
Today, we are rolling out The Outcomes4Me Oncology Clinical Trial Finder, a free desktop and mobile web app developed to aid oncologists and patients to quickly find appropriate clinical trials. In this first version, we are focused on breast cancer and created an experience that understands the nuances of the disease. For example, a premenopausal woman is eligible for postmenopausal trials because she can be given drugs that can induce menopause.
We designed the service with simplicity in mind. A patient’s diagnosis is entered along with their location, and how far they are willing to travel. The appropriate trials are instantly presented, narrowing the list to a manageable subset.
The platform pulls trial information from clinicaltrials.gov and uses artificial intelligence and NLP to annotate trials into structured data based on key inclusion and exclusion criteria, enabling accurate criteria matching. To learn more, visit https://trials.outcomes4me.com/.
