Project 466274

Clinical trials are used to evaluate how safe and effective medications, devices or approaches to treatment are for patients. They are the highest form of evidence and a driver of evidence-based medicine. The ability to rapidly and effectively design and deploy a clinical trial is critical to gathering the information needed to adjust therapies in the face of new diseases, or to adapt to constraints and shortages in the healthcare system. Conducting a clinical trial requires many professionals to cooperate with different areas of expertise, including medical specialists (physicians, surgeons, nurses, allied health professionals), scientific staff (biostatisticians, scientists, graduate students, epidemiologists) and operational staff (data and study coordinators, regulatory staff, medical writers). Each member has different skills that are required for a trial to succeed, and some of these skills are best taught in the context of a clinical trials focused program. For example, there are trial-specific regulatory and safety requirements. We propose to leverage existing programs and specialized expertise developed in pan-Canadian clinical trials networks to create and expand training programs geared toward each type of professional working in clinical trials. We will leverage existing job-shadowing opportunities and expand them across the network, and further develop mentorship programs for coordinators and trialists. Biostatisticians and bioinformaticists require highly specialized training, and they are professionals who are in ever-increasing demand with the changing nature of clinical trials. All training activities will benefit from direct access to experts and member networks of the Pan-Canadian Clinical Trials Consortium. We will translate the best of each institution's training approaches and successes to centres across the country and improve Canada's capacity to conduct clinical trials of the highest quality while improving trainees' job prospects.