Welcome back to New Day Northwest.
While there can be misconceptions,
clinical trials are an integral part of
clinical research and help make medical
advances which quite often frankly.
Save lives. So to learn more about
the importance of this kind of
research is a night of Jamula,
director of the research
program at Evergreen Health.
Welcome to New Day.
Thank you so much for having me.
We are delighted to have
you here to talk about this.
And and for someone First off
who may not really understand,
can you explain what is a clinical trial?
What goes into it?
Absolutely. So a clinical trial is
basically a systematic investigation
of a a medication or a device that is
not currently already on the market.
It's not. DA approved and so and
clinical trials usually happen out
of clinics or hospitals and medical
centers just like Evergreen Health.
And the vision for our program is
that we want to offer a clinical
trial to all patients that walk
in the door at Evergreen.
So just as you would see.
A physical therapist or you might
see a nutritionist.
We want you to be able to see a researcher.
OK,
That is really cool. Yeah.
And it's for many conditions.
For all conditions,
for all conditions. Absolutely.
And the reason that we do that is
because we sort of think about,
you know, research as being just
part of the toolbox for a physician
in in providing, you know,
cutting edge care for patients.
It really does.
And there's been many laws that have been.
Change so that people have access to
these clinical trials that may have
not lifesaving treatment to tell
us about what the research for a
hospital is and and how that clinical
trial plays into that role when it
comes to specifically the research.
Oh absolutely.
So when a patient walks in the
door at Evergreen for example,
they may be you know getting their
treatment for a certain condition.
Our hope is that they also get approach to.
Discuss a clinical trial.
So maybe they're newly diagnosed
with the disease and we want to
be able to offer them, you know,
therapies that don't make their
their disease worse or maybe they are
more advanced in their condition, right.
And so we offer,
you know trials for them that are
appropriate for their disease pathway.
And our goal at all times is
to improve their well-being.
I think
a lot of people sometimes when they
hear a clinical trailer like, well,
what about placebos, what are some of
the misconceptions about clinical trials?
Oh yeah, there's lots of misconceptions
unfortunately about clinical.
Wilds, and I'm hoping to debunk
2 of them OK with you today.
So the first misconception has
been somebody's on a trial.
People may consider them to be
sort of a like a Guinea pig.
That's a word that gets you know,
that's a phrase that gets used.
Often, and you know I'm here to tell
you that you're actually anything,
but you're a medical hero.
Safety is paramount in clinical
trials for us and safety is actually
built into all of the clinical
trial pathways for a drug or
medication or device to get approved.
And in fact,
you may actually have more medical
oversight when you're on a clinical trial
than when if you were a clinic patient,
you may have more Ekg's,
more visits with your doctor,
etcetera.
Because we're looking at your
health with a very fine-tuned lens.
We want to make sure that
we're being safe with you,
right? Yeah. And you were
saying the second. Yeah, the
2nd. The 2nd misconception is
that people somehow don't expect.
To have a research program,
especially one that is like ours,
you know that one that is sort of
a world class research program
within a Community Hospital setting.
And you know, I think that patients
should expect that in their hospital
settings and in fact research shows
that patients want to get their care.
With whether it's research
care or clinical care,
they want to get all their care
within one roof and Evergreen's
been doing that since the 1980s.
It's
a really comprehensive process.
When that happens together,
what are some important questions
that people who are considering?
Being part of a medical or
clinical trial, ask themselves,
that's a great question.
So you know, clinical trials,
they do take time and effort from patients
and they do require frequent visits.
They may require you to do
some work when you're at home,
be it questionnaires or
checking in with your doctor,
checking in with your nurse I'm, etc.
So just know that you know,
we do require a little bit more
oversight over your health.
And so considering that and
considering how it fits within
your lifestyle is a really
important question to consider.
Well
because this is the research right that all.
These appointments, all these things,
these markers are helping the
greater research goal to help
thousands of others down the line.
Where does the research go from here?
Like I said, it helps thousands
of others down the line.
What can we expect in the future?
Yeah, that's a great question.
You know, there there's two kind of
massive movements happening in research.
The first one being is that we are at the
intersection of healthcare and technology.
And when you're at that intersection,
you know, as researchers we find ourselves.
Being able to diagnose patients better
and faster and sooner we were able
to provide care within their home.
And then the other aspect of, you know,
what's going to come down the road in the
future is that there's an FDA mandate.
That requires clinical trials to have equal
representation from all ages and all genders.
You know,
diversity and inclusion in their trials.
And as researchers, when we get,
you know, help, you know,
medications and devices to come to market,
we want to make sure it works in everybody,
yeah.
And so in order for the drug or for the
medication or the device to work and
everybody you have to have clinical trials.
Yeah, that welcome people of all
genders and races and ages, etc.
Absolutely.
And so that mandate is going to
be a game changing for us because
you know an Evergreen of course
has been working on that pandemic.
So it's just very evaluating
for you that could happen for
you all. Thank you so much at night,
it was have been a pleasure talking with you.
And if you want to learn more
about what we discussed today,
be sure to visit the Evergreen
Health website on your screen.
We'll also have more info on
our New Day website. Thank you.
Well, the National Holocaust
Memorial Museum recently held
their annual Days of Remembrance.
And when we come back,
we're going to meet one Seattle
man who traveled to Washington,
DC to donate artifacts from his own family.
Stay with us.
This portion of New Day Northwest
is sponsored by Evergreen Health.