Intro to Clinical Research

What is technology and how is it used in research? How can we, or should we, be using all of the data collected about us for research, and what are the ethical dangers of this? What rules are in plac…

Do we have an equitable or equal society? What even do those words mean? And why do we care - what possible impacts could those things have on people and/ or their healthcare outcomes? The answer - A…

In this episode, we’re back in Elyse’s corner, with the marvellous shiny rocks, which today will go unpolished! Instead, we’re talking about direct to consumer advertising for prescription and over t…

What is a conflict of interest and why might it be important? In this episode we briefly define what a COI is, and explore some examples around medical research and what the impact may be. 

Remember,…

A question that has stood since time immemorial. What DO government regulators do, when it comes to drugs and devices? Hopefully, this episode will give you some answers to that question! Debbie atte…

Welcome back from our summer break! Today, a shorter episode looking at the use of Ozempic/ Wegovy (brand names) - type II diabetes semiglutide drugs, because they’re all over the news media at the m…

Today, Elyse and Debbie are putting their finger on the pulse of THE NEWS around clinical research, drugs, science, health - as much news as you could want! We’re going to take it in turns and share …

Today’s topic is not a fun one, but is something many of us have experience with - we’re talking about cancer - what causes it, how it works, and how it’s treated. Once we’ve got the science part out…

In this episode, we’re back in Elyse’s corner, and it has some extremely shiny rocks! Today, we’re talking about temperature and how important it it to the delivery of research and successful medical…

As members of the public how can we influence what is developed? Who is making the decisions about which new medicines and products get researched? That’s the topic for today, and I’m afraid it’s not…

Getting a clinical trial site (or sites) ready to start is a busy, hectic and high pressure time and the focus of our episode today. What is needed, how the items interlock and overlap, and who is re…

Ever thought about a career in clinical research? In this episode that’s exactly what we’re talking about - what the options are, what you need to know, and what transferable skills you need. 

Rememb…

Today, we’re talking about Informed Consent - what it is, how it works, how it's documented and how it is handled for different people. This is a whistle-stop tour covering the main principles and po…

In this episode, we’re talking about some issues with treatments. We’re looking at some drugs that have lost or might lose their approvals, or cases where additional measures are put in place for saf…

In this episode, we’re back in Elyse’s corner, and it has far fewer cobwebs - someone has been dusting! Elyse is going to tell Debbie all about CPR - how it works, how well it works, and we’re going …

We’ve covered a lot of topics so far, so today we’re recapping what we’ve discussed already AND looking at the end of end of a clinical study - from about 10000 feet! We do want to dive in more to so…

So it’s been 5 minutes since we talked about Debbie’s favourite topic documentation, so we’re back there to discuss Good Documentation Practice (GDP). What does that mean in real, clinical trial prac…

How do we ensure (and assure) the quality of every part of the clinical trial process. Why do you even need quality assurance? What sorts of things do auditors or Inspectors find? That’s our topic fo…

Unlucky for some, but for us we’re delighted - Episode 13 is our long awaited Q&A episode! We throw questions at each other, though honestly Debbie does answer most of them. Huge thanks to everyone w…

In this episode, Debbie explains to Elyse all about phenylephrine and why it’s been in the news (and maybe not as obvious on your pharmacy shelves) in the last 6 months. What research was done when t…