Article 157: Surfing for Study Subjects

• Although service providers have long offered Internet-based patient recruitment solutions; large health portals are eyeing the clinical trials industry as an important revenue source.
• The January merger of an SMO--Affiliated Research Centers--and AmericasDoctor.com may facilitate other SMO, and even CRO, alliances with major health portals.

Article 158: EMR: Gearing Up for Prime Time

• Current use of electronic medical records is very low, but pending HIPAA requirements will likely accelerate adoption rates.
• EMRs are expected to play a dramatic role in reducing development cycle times and costs; the question is, when will they begin to do so?

Article 159: CentreStage Europe: Russian Market Meets its First SMO

• Despite some ongoing problems, the Russian market is becoming a more attractive location in which to conduct clinical trials due to high levels of investigator motivation and a treatment-naive patient population. Geny, a Boston-based SMO, was founded specifically to navigate the problems still to be encountered in Russia when conducting trials.

Article 160: Eye On: Prostate Cancer

• CenterWatch editorial has identified 52 therapies in the clinical research pipeline for the treatment of the most common cancer diagnosed in men--prostate cancer. Primary areas of research include gene therapy, immunologic agents, vaccines, anti-angiogenesis and drug delivery.