Seth Carpenter, 5, jokes with volunteer Trent Whicker while playing video games at Erlanger Health System. Seth has been in treatment for leukemia during the last 19 months and it is currently in remission.
A device that retrieves blood clots from the brain after a stroke, radiation delivered immediately after surgery for breast cancer and the latest leukemia treatment for children -- those are just a few of the devices and clinical trials undergoing testing in Chattanooga area hospitals.
Once primarily done only in large teaching hospitals, in the last several decades research has shifted and doctors and clinicians now conduct clinical trials in most hospitals across the United States.
On its website, which tracks clinical trials around the world, the National Institutes of Health list more than 6,000 trials in Tennessee, with about 700 of those in Chattanooga. Of the three local hospitals, Erlanger Health System conducts the most trials, with more than 200 ongoing, but officials at Memorial Health Care System and Parkridge Medical Center said their hospitals also are engaged in clinical trials.
"I think we've seen the community of physicians becoming increasingly engaged in clinical research," said Dr. Colleen Schmitt, the medical director who heads up research at Memorial. "It brings value to our community and value to our patient population."
At Memorial, doctors are conducting a wide variety of trials, including research on heart disease and cancer, Schmitt said. The hospital has about 20 ongoing trials, she said.
Chattanooga doctors involved in research said clinical trials allow them to offer safe and tested technology to patients who could not receive it otherwise and also to provide the treatment at no cost to the patients.
The majority of trials are done for drug companies or device makers, but some are also "homegrown," with doctors initiating their own research. Whatever the type of trial, they are monitored by the National Institutes of Health.
The trial process is rigorous, the doctors said, and must first undergo several testing phases before it can be conducted on patients. In addition, any trials must be approved by institutional review boards and research programs to ensure the hospitals have the proper resources to conduct a specific trial.
The process takes an enormous time commitment, from filling out the required paperwork to tracking patients and documenting all the results, but doctors said they jump through the hoops because trials provide patients access to cutting-edge treatment.
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Clinical trials grow in Chattanooga area