Clinical Trials Day, celebrated every year around May 20th, is a day taken to recognize the hard work and invaluable contributions of study volunteers, clinical investigators, and research professionals to the advancement of medical care. The day was first recognized in 2005, and commemorates the day when James Lind started the first randomized clinical trial of various treatments for scurvy, on May 20, 1747.
A great resource for learning more about the origin story of clinical trials is https://www.jameslindlibrary.org/ . This site contains histories and articles chronicling the development “of fair tests of treatments in healthcare,” or clinical trials as we now know them. We recommend checking out the illustrative timeline on their homepage, as well as their free audio commentary of the Testing Treatments digital book.
According to Health Canada, 900 clinical trials are authorized for conduct in Canada every year, and there is an average of 5000+ trials active at any given time. This of course means there are thousands of more volunteers who give their time to various study visits and procedures. A large part of Clinical Trials Day is acknowledging and appreciating our audience of health-conscious Canadians who’ve registered to receive updates on new studies, in anticipation of joining those incredibly important volunteers who make medical advances in drug discovery possible. Their interest and participation in trials is vital to the discovery of new medicines for conditions such as type 2 diabetes, arthritis, COPD and many more. They are a big part of what makes our work in clinical research possible.
We would also like to recognize and thank all of our research site physicians and site staff across Canada for their contributions to public health, medical advancement and improved health outcomes for both patients within their community, and across the globe.
If you are interested in learning more about JoinAStudy or our investigators, please click through the links above on our website. If you are looking to join our research community and assist in the advancement of medicine, visit our current studies page and sign-up today: https://joinastudy.ca/current-studies/ . We update this page regularly so make sure to add it to your Bookmarks and check back for the newest opportunities!