As he was from Osmanabad, his parents consulted several doctors there and they recommended the child to be taken to Sayhadri Hospital for the diagnosis of the disease. When parents brought the child to Sahyadri Hospital he was diagnosed with a bleeding disorder called Hemophilia. In this condition, some clotting factors are absent in the children and this child has to be given this factor on a daily basic. The cost of medicines for treating this disease is very high and not affordable to the common man. However, it was possible for the parents of this kid to treat him, due to the clinical trial for Hemophilia.It is because of patients who volunteer for clinical trials, the development of new medicine as well as improvement in medical treatment outcomes is possible.
International Clinical Trials day is celebrated on 20th May every year in honour of James Lind who was a surgeon at HMS Salisbury. In 1747, he started his first trial on scurvy, disease resulting from deficiency of Vitamin C. His trial consisted of 12 men suffering from scurvy, grouped into pairs and given a variety of dietary supplements from cider to oranges and lemons. After six days, there was a noticeable improvement in the group eating the citrus fruit, providing evidence of the link between citrus fruits and scurvy. Since then Clinical Trials started and hence, James Lind’s experiments are of vital importance in the field of medical research.
Clinical Trials are the scientific studies conducted for newly developed drugs and to establish the safety and efficiency of that new drug. It is a study that explores whether a medical strategy, treatment or device is safe and effective for humans. The entire clinical trial process follows a document and is called a “protocol” and the guideline used for conducting a trial is called “Good Clinical Practice”. For participating in any clinical trial, the patient has to be eligible as per certain criteria mentioned in the protocol. Each eligible patient has to agree by his free will to participate in the trial, thus making the choice to participate absolutely voluntary. Clinical trials play an important role in discovering new treatments, and making sure that the use of existing treatments is done in the best way possible. Ultimately, high-quality clinical research helps to improve future healthcare.
According to the service of the U.S. National Institutes of Health,“ Total number of registered studies or clinical trials in U.S and Non U.S as of May 17, 2016 is,215,752.
Medical Director of Sayadari Hospital Dr. Deepa Divekar said,” In India lot of clinical trials are going on; unfortunately as compared to the population the participation in these clinical trials is not much. There is no awareness and sometimes patients wonder whether they are being used as guinea pigs? Will it be safe? We are creating awareness on this occasion of International clinical trial day that participation in trials is absolutely safe and is a regulated process” There are stringent protocols in place to ensure absolute safety of each patient on clinical trials and this is monitored robust and proactive Ethics Committee.”
Mrs. Majiri Joshi, Senior Consultant at Sahyadri Clinical Research and Development Center said “Sahyadri Clinical Research and Development Center is a full-fledged clinical research unit of Sahyadri Hospital, established in year 2006 have taken the initiative to celebrate this day to create awareness among people about clinical trials. Till date, SCRDC, has conducted more than a 100 studies in different therapeutic areas & numbers of patients have benefited.”
Mr. Rashid Lilani suffering from Hemophilia who has participated in the clinical trial in SCRDC said” Hemophilia is very painful disorder, we as kids have suffered a lot, we only rely on blood and plasma. My suffering, throughout my childhood is in important reason for my decision of participating in the trial. So, maybe we have a better lifestyle till the trial runs. It is boon for us, it is a chance to take, and this trial has been fantastic and worked very well for me. I couldn’t even walk but now I can travel all over India and abroad.”