PRACTICALs

When disabled people are included in clinical trials, we can find treatments that work for more people. However, the procedures of clinical trials are often designed with the “ideal” participant in mind – e.g. someone who has no other illnesses and is fully able to understand and participate in the trial. As a result, trial protocols (the documents that describe how trials will be run) might exclude people who have a physical or mental disability, when this is not intended by the researchers. For example, a trial may involve frequent hospital visits, which could be too difficult for someone who can’t leave home by themselves.

The aim of the Promoting Accessibility in Clinical Trials (PRACTICALs) project is to create a handbook and online learning modules for clinical trials researchers and ethics committee members about how they can improve the accessibility of clinical trials for disabled people. Disabled people and their carers will be included at each stage of the project to help shape the direction of the research and make sense of the findings. The project is being undertaken by researchers from the University of East Anglia and partners from the charity Disability Rights UK. It is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (project ref: NIHR206881).

If you have any questions about the PRACTICALs project, please contact Dr Rebecca Linnett: r.linnett@uea.ac.uk​