“September 2022, we fundraised for a clinical trial unit, February 2023 we opened our clinical trial unit, and, today, we can say we have opened a clinical trial for our community with more coming.”
With the mental and financial burden of having no choice but to travel to Melbourne for a clinical trial, these words from Mildura Base Public Hospital’s Chief Executive Officer, Terry Welch, are significant for our community.
For our patients, a clinical trial is a way to access new treatments, interventions, medicines, and medical devices. These trial options have already shown better results, they are just not available to everyone yet.
MPBH’s first clinical trial opened in September and has had local patients participating, stopping the need for them to go to Melbourne.
The melanoma trial is looking at the follow-up care patients who have been treated for metastatic melanoma ( it’s spread to different parts of the body) currently receive.
Clinical trials are critical to healthcare because they help us to keep improving treatment and care.
“This trial is being run globally, which means our patients are getting access to the world’s cutting-edge research, now,”
“There are different types of trials – they can be life-saving and quality-of-life improving for patients, which is why we have more in the pipeline,” Terry said.
MBPH has been supported by external partners, including a program called TrialHub since 2022. Based at The Alfred Hospital, the Australian Government-funded program has been supporting us with range of intensive support and mentoring that has been invaluable and instrumental in helping us to reach this milestone for our community.
We look forward to sharing the experiences from our patients, who have benefited from this trial, over the next few months. And we will continue to update you as more trials open.
This has also been made possible by generous community donations through our Foundation.
Learn more about clinical trials; https://www.mbph.org.au/services/clinical-trials-research
