CCMO kicks off programme on patient participation in clinical trials

To promote patient participation in clinical trials, CCMO is launching a programme to cooperate actively with other parties. Patient participation benefits the quality of research. That is why this subject is high on the agenda of CCMO.

"The aim of healthcare is to improve patients' daily lives," says CCMO chairman Joop van Gerven. "By allowing patients to participate in thinking about and deciding on clinical research from the outset, we can increase this positive effect."

Patient participation can have multiple benefits, such as improved inclusion of subjects, reduced dropout of subjects during the study, and research that better meets the needs of patients.

The programme will be carried out in close cooperation with the four parties involved: patient organisations, sponsors, researchers and reviewing bodies. Together with CCMO, these parties will work to achieve four goals:

  1. A greater role for patients in drawing up research protocols and in the evaluation during clinical trials
  2. Strengthening the role of test subject members in the review committees
  3. More intensive cooperation between CCMO and relevant parties
  4. More insight into patient-initiated research

To achieve these goals, in the near future CCMO will organise talks with the parties involved to determine what needs to be done to promote patient participation in clinical research. Naturally, we follow European developments closely. The ultimate goal is to give patients a more active role in the process from start to finish, so that clinical research will be even better.