Editor’s Note: This post was created by the Coalition for Clinical Trial Awareness (CCTA) to highlight the Clinical Trials Awareness Week Policy Roundtable that they hosted on May 3, 2017.

Patients are eager for new and better treatments, yet more than one-third of clinical trials do not meet their enrollment goals. Finding solutions to this challenge served as the focus of the third annual Clinical Trials Awareness Week, held May 1-5, 2017. At a May 3 policy roundtable held at the United States Capitol, diverse stakeholders explored how the federal government can help to raise clinical trials awareness. Participants included:

• David Charles, MD Steering Committee Chairman, Coalition for Clinical Trials Awareness
• Sara Chang, Director of Policy & Advocacy, Research America
• Renata Louwers, Patient Advocate & Clinical Trials Writer
• Jonca Bull, MD Assistant Commissioner, FDA Office of Minority Health

The event also featured U.S. Representative Diana Degette, a health policy leader and sponsor of the 21st Century Cures Act. The event’s discussion produced four key concepts for improving clinical trials awareness.

Congress Should Act to Raise Clinical Trials Awareness

In an April 2017 letter to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, CCTA encouraged members to use the Prescription Drug User Fee Act reauthorization process to:

Learn more about Clinical Trials Awareness Week 2017 at www.CCTAwareness.org.