Today (Friday 20 May) is International Clinical Trials Day. This is celebrated annually in commemoration of what was likely the first ever clinical trial, conducted in 1747 by Dr. James Lind and to acknowledge achievements and to raise awareness.

This year, we spoke with Dorothy Sutton, Clinical Research Practitioner – Cardiology. Dot has worked for our Trust since 1984, and within research since 1998.

“Medical research is amazing, taking concepts and ideas and turning them into real-life outcomes allows us in research to find the best treatment for every situation. I have worked on so many clinical trials over the years, both nationally and internationally, and I now see treatments I have helped to trial that are part of normal practice and are regularly prescribed to patients.”

Dorothy highlighted one real-world outcome following a trial that was focused on Warfarin, an anticoagulant drug that is commonly used to prevent blood clots such as deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, and to prevent stroke in people who have atrial fibrillation, valvular heart disease or artificial heart valves.

“We researched oral anticoagulants, with positive results from all over the world. These were subsequently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use as standard of care. Now, patients are no longer needed to attend hospital every few days to have a blood test, where they would then have to wait for the results before we could determine what dose of Warfarin the patient requires (which they would then have to additionally spend time waiting to be prescribed).

The new oral anticoagulant is a tablet to be taken every day and a blood test performed every 6 months. This was a huge breakthrough in patient care and quality of life, it also resulted in substantial savings for the NHS”

If you want to see more from the Research team as they highlight International Clinical Trials Day, they will be sharing more information on Twitter.