Clinical Research in Resource-Limited Settings: Enhancing Research Capacity and Working Together to Make Trials Less Complicated

Abstract

Our aim is to raise awareness of the issues faced by researchers in developing countries and to introduce an initiative we are developing. We propose that the gaps and issues we have outlined could be largely addressed by building a community of researchers from all the various roles who will be able to access the information, guidance and resources they need, whilst also be able to share methods and pragmatic operational practices that have been locally derived and known to work. Some examples include template consent forms, data management systems, and example protocols and laboratory sample collection and handling methods. We emphasize that this initiative is entirely based on an ethos of collaboration, open access, and sharing practice; indeed it will only be successful if research groups both use the resource and contribute to its development. The development of a prototype of web site for this initiative is underway and can be found at http://pilot.globalhealthtrials.org/. We are making this public at this early juncture as we are seeking involvement from our colleagues right from the outset in line with the open and collaborative ethos that is envisaged. Therefore, we encourage colleagues to become part of this initiative by providing content, commenting on the Web site, and sharing their operational tools. We also welcome all those engaged in trials to register and build their own personal professional development record to track their career and training record, and to provide a review structure.