Involvement in clinical trials is important as it may allow patients to undertake a treatment that they could not otherwise have accessed. They are also the mechanism through which the medical system develops its knowledge of therapeutic interventions including, safety, effectiveness, and positioning in the treatment spectrum.
Teletrials are an established mechanism for increasing patient involvement in trials that would otherwise be restricted to those with access to metropolitan health facilities. The Australian Teletrial Program has implemented guidelines and provided resources to help establish this model. This model has had broad acceptance by State Health Authorities and Trials groups. Several Trials have successfully utilised the Teletrial model across Australia in recent years. They have demonstrated that this is a feasible and safe model, although infrastructure and governance at satellite sites is often discussed as a barrier.
With the current increase in regional migration in Australia there is increasing strain on regional health systems. Clinical trials can sometimes be seen as a non-essential activity and potentially as a risk and are therefore not seen as important. This exposes a growing population of patients to trial access inequity. To counteract this the benefits of Teletrials to regional Health Services need to be highlighted along with the expectation that it is a standard of care.
Through discussing experiences from participation in Teletrials from a regional point of view the goal is to highlight such benefits. Barriers encountered will also be discussed along with how they can potentially be overcome.