New website signposts UK clinical trials expertise

29th October 2008

A new comprehensive online resource listing national expertise in the design and conduct of clinical trials is launched today. The UKCRC Registered Clinical Trials Units website provides, for the first time, centralised information on Clinical Trials Units (CTUs) in the UK with expertise in centrally coordinating multicentre clinical trials from design and development, through to data management, and final analysis. The new website will be a valuable resource for clinical researchers and funders wishing to identify CTUs that can help them to design and run high quality trials for the benefit of patients.

The CTUs listed on the website have all achieved UKCRC Registration status. To do this they were required to provide evidence to an international panel of experts of their capability to centrally coordinate multicentre clinical trials to the highest quality standards. Forty CTUs met these quality criteria and were awarded UKCRC Registration in November 2007.

Using the website, researchers and funders can easily locate CTUs by name or location. In addition, more detailed searching allows users to find suitable CTUs by disease research areas, methodological research areas, or specific types of clinical research study. CTUs can also be identified by their experience of working with particular funders of clinical research.

The resource was developed and funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network Coordinating Centre on behalf of the UKCRC Partners.

The UKCRC Registered Clinical Trials Units website can be found at: http://www.ukcrc-ctu.org.uk/

Link to full press release

See also -  Clinical Trials Units pages