International clinical trials: perspectives of clinical research coordinators

There are several different task roles among the co-medicals who are involved in international clinical trials (ICTs). In this review article, several issues related with ICTs from the view point of clinical research coordinators (CRCs) will be discussed. The discussions include interview results from eight CRCs of four institutions who have been involved in ICTs, current status of education for co-medicals in the field of ICTs, and future perspectives of ICTs from the CRC's view point. The following topics are especially focused in the discussion. 1) It is necessary to establish the infra-structure for free discussion among the ICT team so that opinions of co-medicals as the operation managers of the participating institutions can be openly shared and importantly taken into account. 2) It is also important for co-medicals to conduct research studies to clarify the problems in the current ICT support systems. 3) Lastly, the significance of early involvement of CRCs into the ICT protocol development must be emphasized, because the quality of protocols will be better improved by the practical insight of CRCs, and consequently, the accomplishment of the ICT, such as the speed and the data quality, may be accelerated.