Photo gallery: Raising awareness around clinical research

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Clinical Trials Awareness Day takes place May 20 each year in honor of the first randomized trial that James Lind performed on sailors aboard the HMS Salisbury in 1747 to find the best treatment for scurvy.

This day is celebrated by recognizing clinical research professionals and raising clinical trials awareness in the community.

The Frankel Cardiovascular Center Clinical Research Group (C3RG) and The Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR) are taking strides to make sure this day is celebrated across the institution and beyond!

On Tuesday, May 14 at the most recent C3RG educational seminar, research teams were photographed with a #CTD2019 sign and recognized for the important work they do each day.

There was also a call to action: MICHR recently deployed their NoMed pharmacy outreach initiative. The initiative began when they were awarded one of 12 grants nationwide by the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP) and Greater Gift to develop a community engagement event that will create awareness about the importance of participating in clinical trials and studies.

As a result of this grant, the NoMed Pharmacy was deployed, in partnership with the CVC, Rogel Cancer Center, and Michigan Medicine Precision Health at the American Association Heart Walk that took place at Rynearson Stadium on May 11.

Participants at the Heart Walk were invited to step inside the NoMed pharmacy tent to see what they had in store. There they were greeted by the un-pharmacist, Lisa Connally, and empty shelves.

Connally explained to those that entered that they were stepping into what a pharmacy might look like if there were no clinical research trials or studies.

“Without clinical research, there wouldn’t be common medications or devices that help us every day. Someone went through a clinical trial to bring the community the treatments we have today,” Connally said.

Guests were then asked to fill out an empty medication box, with the disease they would like to see a better treatment/cure for and the name of the person that they want to help. These medication boxes were then used to stock the shelves of NoMed pharmacy. Guests of the pharmacy were also invited to learn more about the importance of clinical and health research, the importance of diversity in research, and to be connected to research opportunities by visiting nomed.org.

The NoMed pharmacy roadshow will be competing in the PopUp Star challenge at the Healthy Flint Festival on July 27. MICHR is looking for interested clinical research faculty and staff to help volunteer at this event.

If you are interested in helping please contact Lisa Connally at powelllm@med.umich.edu. If you are interested in attending in the monthly educational C3RG seminar, please find them online or email CVC-C3RG@med.umich.edu.