Clinical Trials and Tribulations

Please note that this event now ends at 21.00, and not at 20.30 as originally stated.

Play a part in exploring, questioning and challenging the realities of clinical trials… and tribulations.

The Dana café is transformed into a gaming forum for the evening. Card games and bingo lie in wait for players. But the games have a twist – they all relate to different phases of clinical trials.

To start, you’ll take a chance with a spin of the ball on the roulette wheel to find out if you’ll be taking on the role of a ‘patient’, or whether you’ll become the ‘treatment’. What’s the aim of the game? It’s to get through the challenges of Phases I, II and III of clinical trials.

You’ll meet various experts involved in clinical trials such as ethicists, pharmacologists, scientists, statisticians and nurses, positioned at each phase of the game. They’ll discuss the trials and tribulations you’ll be facing along the way.

This is your chance to find out what clinical trials are really about, from the people directly involved. Why do we have clinical trials? Is it safe to take part, or are we being used as guinea pigs? What treatments are tested on us? What’s in it for me if I take part in a trial? Are new drugs always better than what’s currently available? Is bureaucracy delaying releasing drugs and treatments to the public, or is it a necessary process?

Come along and hear the theory, challenge the concepts and find out the realities of clinical trials for yourself.

This event is in partnership with the Medical Research Council.

Speakers

Sheena McCormack: Senior clinical epidemiologist, Division of HIV and Infections, Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit
Max Parmar: Head of Cancer Group, Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology
Ian Judson: Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, The Royal Marsden Hospital

Host:
Daniel K Sokol: Lecturer in Ethics, Centre for Professional Ethics, Keele University; Honorary Research Associate, Imperial College Faculty of Medicine, London