The Australian Government funded Alfred Health in 2020, to establish an Australian-first clinical trial partnership program. TrialHub partnered with six Victorian hospitals to extend trial participation well beyond major metropolitan centres: Bendigo Health, Latrobe Regional Hospital, Northern Health, Peninsula Health, Mildura Base Public Hospital, and Bass Coast Health.
TrialHub aimed to increase access to potentially life-saving cancer trials for underserved populations including individuals diagnosed with melanoma, rare cancers and those living in outer metropolitan, regional, rural and remote areas. Melanoma and Skin Cancer Trials work with 5 of 6 TrialHub’s flagship sites in Victoria.
Since then, more than 1600 new participants have been recruited to trials and research across the 6 TrialHub partner sites throughout regional and rural Victoria. These patients would not otherwise have had access to treatment within their local area and potentially missed this treatment option. The ultimate outcome of the program was the improvement of access to and participation in clinical trials for people who live in outer metropolitan, regional, rural, and remote areas.
“Adopting a teletrial model, TrialHub has increased access to a wide variety of cancer clinical trials including melanoma and skin cancer in outer metropolitan and regional areas”, said TrialHub Director A/Prof Anne Woollett.
After five years, TrialHub’s impact on the clinical trial landscape in Victoria1 includes:
- More than 2,000 patients have accessed a local clinical trial
- 138 new clinical trials have opened across TrialHub’s flagship sites
- Adoption of 13 teletrials recruiting 150 participants
- 94% of staff reported TrialHub had facilitated an increase in clinical trial activity
Independent evaluation1 of the program found that “TrialHub has supported a transformation of the clinical trial landscape across Victoria by building sustainable Clinical trial capabilities in regional and outer metropolitan health services”. This independent evaluation confirmed “TrialHub has achieved its core objectives while creating lasting structural change that extends trial participation well beyond major metropolitan centres. TrialHub’s evidence-based approach offers a proven scalable model that could be expanded nationally to address healthcare inequities while strengthening Australia’s position in the global CTs sector”.
Learn more about the incredible efforts of the team behind TrialHub and their partners here.