Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Research (PGDipCR)
The Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Research is a distance course that will provide clinical researchers with the skills for undertaking drug development and clinical trials, among other areas.
The Victoria University diploma will be taught mostly online by clinicians from Capital & Coast District Health Board (CCDHB) and the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand (MRINZ), with Victoria University staff having advisory roles.
The diploma draws on the research strengths of Victoria University (which also offers courses in the health-related sciences of biomedicine, nursing and psychology) with the clinical expertise of CCDHB and MRINZ clinical staff.
The course will enhance the future performance of the health sector in the areas of clinical research and health education. It is the only qualification of its kind in New Zealand.
Go to Victoria University website for full details.
Improving New Zealand’s environment to support innovation through clinical trials
On 10 February 2010 the Health Committee initiated an inquiry into improving New Zealand’s environment to support innovation through clinical trials.
Clinical trials of medicines, medical devices, and other therapies are intended primarily to benefit those suffering ill health. They are also beneficial to clinicians, medical scientists, innovators, and health standards in the country in which they are carried out. There are also potential downsides, for example for a patient who is in the control group or experiences side effects.
Currently Phase I – IV trials have been estimated to be worth between $12 million to $30 million per year in New Zealand, compared with Australia where they are worth $450 million per year.
In Australia, the Rudd government has instigated an ‘action group’ to cement the nation’s place as a good place for the conduct of clinical trials. Since the Cartwright report, New Zealand has developed a very thorough and careful approach to clinical trials, through its National Ethics Committee system. Commentators consider that great benefit could be achieved by improving the environment for carrying out clinical trials in New Zealand as the system can be overly bureaucratic and slow.
The terms of reference for this inquiry are as follows:
The inquiry would include ways to ensure:
- Coordinated, nationwide approaches to clinical trials and performance measures
- Streamlined ethics approvals systems
- National patient referral networks, and better ways to approve, establish and conduct clinical trials
- Removal of unnecessary barriers
- Benefit to New Zealand patients through clinical trials, as well as the New Zealand innovation system, health system, and economy.
The committee will be calling for submissions soon.
Exploring Impact: Public involvement in NHS, public health and social care research
New INVOLVE report launched on 6th November 2009 by Professor Dame Sally Davies, Director General of Research and Development at the Department of Health. This report explores the impact of public involvement through an in-depth review of published literature.
It draws together a wealth of examples of how public involvement is conducted, and what difference it is making. But it also asks hard questions of the quality of the evidence for the impact of such involvement, revealing huge variation in how this is assessed and reported and highlighting difficulties in judging it or drawing general conclusions.
However, although there is not a consistent approach to assessing impact, or describing it, the same benefits and costs are being consistently reported:
- In clinical research it was found to be of particular value in ensuring acceptability of trials, and that participants felt them to be ethical, well-designed and have relevant outcome measures
- Public involvement was reported to help increase recruitment to all types of research
- Public involvement was reported to be of value in qualitative research