AIM
Patients living outside of major metropolitan centres face many barriers in accessing clinical trials, with reported low levels of trial participation in some centres. Teletrials provide an opportunity to overcome this disparity, improve patient outcomes and support regional oncologists. The Teletrials program will also address barriers to support mechanisms to regional oncologists, enabling networking and improving capability.
The VCCC teletrials program will address barriers to the conduct of an Investigator Initiated Trial to include a tele-trial component for patients from regional Victoria.
METHODS
The principles of the COSA Australasian Teletrials Model and Queensland Health Teletrials Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) will be further developed with regional consumer input. A trial cluster will be identified which will include a metropolitan site and at least two regional sites from the Victorian Regional Trials Network.
A third party will undertake an audit of the Teletrial program to ensure regulatory, legal and ethical requirements are addressed. An online training program will be developed to help embed the establishment of teletrials across the state. The success of the program will be measured through a rigorous process and outcome evaluation methodology, with measures related to the conduct of teletrials, increased knowledge across Victoria and consumer acceptability.
RESULTS
The enablers and barriers to implementation and the outcomes of the process evaluation results will be presented.
CONCLUSION
Teletrials are anticipated to be a key tool in reducing barriers for regional patient trial participation, improving regional cancer patient outcomes and supporting the regional oncology workforce. This program may be a key step to enable teletrials to become a standard of care of all future clinical trials.