CTR Provides a Personal Approach to Clinical Research
websitebuilder • February 7, 2020
“Less is more” may not be the mantra of many large clinical research centers, but Clinical Trials Research (CTR) in the greater Sacramento area has proven that big results can come from smaller teams.
CTR is a private research site that performs clinical studies in a more personal and approachable manner. They accomplish this by treating fewer patients per day and spending more time educating and talking to volunteers than typically larger public centers would.
For nearly 30 years, CTR’s small team has greeted more than 1,000 volunteers with smiles and provided answers to their many questions and concerns along the way. The center’s small business approach eases the fears of many patients who already have enough to worry about.
“Patients regard us as compassionate and professional,” said Dr. Jeff D. Wayne, CTR’s principal investigator.
CTR’s small research trials have resulted in big breakthroughs. Since 2000, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved over 200 medications after CTR studies.
Fewer Patients Means Quality Care
CTR started as a mom-and-pop type program in 1992, and even though it’s now grown to two locations with a team of over 15 specialists and staff, it maintains its personal approach to clinical research.
On average, a public research facility treats about six times more patients every day than CTR, which reduces the time available for patients to ask questions – something they have plenty of at CTR.
“As a small, private research facility, we can pay much more attention to patients,” said Wayne. “I’m not seeing 30 patients a day. We see maybe five to eight patients a day, so I have the time to really spend with the patients and make sure that they are doing OK.”
When Dorothy started a clinical trial at CTR to help treat her rheumatoid arthritis, she appreciated the comprehensive information she received before she even walked through the door. But she said it was the attention she received at the clinic that made her feel at ease.
“I had a really great experience,” she said. “The people that were part of the study, they were like family. You know, you come in, they greeted me, gave me coffee or a snack before you go, we talked about personal stuff, and it was great.”
Education and Treatment
Volunteers like Dorothy and others not only have the chance to help themselves and others receive life-changing treatments through new medications, but they also have the resources to learn more about their own diseases at CTR.
“They know they are going to get something when they come here, not just a medication,” said Robyn Lawrie, a nurse practitioner at CTR. “They are going to get education. They are going to learn about their disease. They are going to learn to take ownership of their disease.”
CTR studies medications intended to help everything from insomnia, lactose intolerance and asthma to diabetes, Crohn’s disease and high blood pressure.
“I love being on the cutting edge of medicine and developing new treatments for people,” said Wayne. “It changes lives.”
Nicholas’s life appeared to be the American dream: loving wife, two young boys and a successful business of his own. But when diabetes started slowing him down and taking over his health, and ultimately his life, he contemplated giving up.
“Diabetes caught up to me and started putting a hurtin’ on me, to the point where I was unable to do a lot of the necessary tasks of my trade,” he said.
But he didn’t let the disease defeat him that easily.
Without clinical research trials, many of the lifesaving medications available today simply would not exist.
Clinical Trials Research (CTR) is destigmatizing the process for research volunteers, who may fear becoming “Guinea pigs,” by providing individualized care and education along the way and minimizing risk to patients.
“The number one concern is do no harm,” said Robyn Lawrie, a nurse practitioner at CTR. “We would never do anything to ever hurt you.”
Since 2000, CTR studies have helped approve more than 200 medications with the help of over 1,000 patient volunteers, and the clinic has maintained its reputation for quality care and volunteer attention.
Like many women, Tamara Alton felt trapped by her menopause symptoms and was unable to function during hot flashes. But everything changed when the working mother of four took a chance and enrolled in a research study through Clinical Trials Research (CTR).
