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Record attendance at the conference of the 6th National Meeting of study nurses and Coordinators of clinical evaluations Clinical study coordinators and study nurses from all over the Czech Republic gathered in Brno for the sixth time. The traditional professional conference, which the Masaryk Institute of Oncology organizes with the support of CZECRIN and the PharmAround Foundation, took place on September 7, 2023, at the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University. Interest in the conference increases every year. This year, it already recorded over 200 participants, among whom were representatives of 25 Czech and 4 Slovak healthcare facilities and representatives of 10 pharmaceutical companies and CROs that implement clinical studies in the Czech Republic. This year, for the first time, representatives of the management of healthcare facilities also visited the conference and discussed the education and working conditions of study coordinators. "The tradition of meeting study coordinators started in 2012 when it was an intimate event for 55 people. We are pleased that it has grown into a large professional conference with a pleasant atmosphere over the years. In addition to interesting lectures, participants also take away experiences from personal meetings, mutual support, and exchange of experiences," says Michaela Hanáková from the Masaryk Institute of Oncology implementation team. This year's program reflected that the study coordinator is becoming an established profession that finds an irreplaceable place in all types of healthcare facilities and in all areas of medicine. A clinical trial coordinator is a professional who performs the role of a clinical trial manager in a healthcare facility, coordinates the study team, oversees adherence to the study protocol, and, above all, participates in the recruitment of patients with whom he is in contact at each visit, ensures their education and performs specialized activities. This is most often a non-medical health worker. The first block of the conference was devoted to the changes that clinical studies have experienced in their practical implementation over the past 20 years and outlined the directions in which the studies will go shortly - decentralized studies, the use of Home Care, and the implementation of electronic source documentation. The second part of the conference looked into the practice of study coordinators in intensive care medicine pediatric oncology and the behind-the-scenes work of external coordinators who work in several centers within the Site Management Organization. At the end of the conference, opinions on the role of study coordinators from the point of view of healthcare facilities, doctors, and representatives of study sponsors were heard in lectures and panel discussions. Across the representatives of individual actors, there is a consensus that without the involvement of clinical trial coordinators, the implementation of trials in healthcare facilities is impossible. In the long term, however, their specialized education and formalization of the profession within the Catalog of Works remains to be solved. The premiere of the film A Day with a Clinical Study Coordinator, produced by the Masaryk Institute of Oncology, was also held as part of the conference. It captures the daily activities of a clinical studies coordinator and will serve as educational and promotional material for this profession.
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