The aim of the trial matching service is to simplify the process of searching - and enrolling in – suitable trials of medications, based on individual circumstances. This, the Alzheimer’s Association said, could go some way towards discovering new diagnostic tools as well as treating and preventing the disease. Furthermore, the service also extends to caregivers, physicians, and researchers.
TrialMatch listings are derived from websites readily available to the public, such as clinicaltrials.gov, though the Alzheimer’s Association ensure their site brings users the latest recruitment news. There is also the added assurance that if a researcher wishes to be included on TrialMatch, they must provide proof of their approval by an institutional review board (IRB) who protect the rights and welfare of research subjects.
According to William Thies, chief medical and scientific officer at the Alzheimer’s Association, TrialMatch is “off to a remarkably good start.”
“The association started the new service in the hopes of making it easier both for people with the disease to enrol in trials of medications and other treatments that could help their symptoms and to assist researchers find the subjects they need to try new approaches to the disorder,” he said.
Since TrialMatch took to the web, over 500 people have begun to use it to research the whereabouts of clinical studies in the US; several of whom already claim to have guaranteed a place on one of the 100 clinical trials currently taking place in American research centres. Now, with a ready supply of volunteers, researchers are no longer left with too few subjects to participate in trials, allowing further research development.
The new service comes at an all important time as 4 million people in the US have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s; an incurable, degenerative, and terminal disease with no available treatments to prevent brain cell deterioration. More alarmingly, by 2050, experts warn that Alzheimer’s will be diagnosed in 1 in every 85 people globally as a result of ageing baby boomers.
Thies believes the latest trials will be searching for effective medications to change the course of the disease, “the ultimate goal being to treat people early enough so that they avoid the devastating loss of function in the end stages.”