Emphasising patient outcomes in clinical trials

Professor Paula Williamson (c) with the COMET Team, from left, Mike Clarke, Elizabeth Gargon, Professor Doug Altman and Professor Jane Blazeby. A special Europe wide event hosted in Dublin to mark International Clinical Trials Day (ICTD) saw Professor Paula Williamson deliver a keynote speech. The University's Head of Biostatistics , Professor Williamson emphasised the importance of patient relevant outcome measures, on a day of talks organised by the European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (ECRIN). Professor Williamson said: "People may think a clinical trial involves only doctors and patients. But there are also methodologists behind the scenes working out how to run the trial, how many patients to involve and how to determine which outcomes are best to measure." Other presentations on the day, held at Dublin Castle, included Christian Gluud from the Copenhagen Trial Unit, Denmark; Silvio Garattini from the Institute Mario Negri in Italy and Chair of the World Medical Association Ethics Committee, Norway's Torunn Janbu. ICTD celebrates the ground-breaking work of James Lind, who discovered an effective treatment for scurvy in 1747. Professor Williamson said: "ICTD is a celebration of James Lind, who undertook the first randomised trial of treatments for scurvy.