While almost all (more than 96 percent) of the physicians in the United States who treat people with Parkinson's agree that clinical trials are necessary to find better treatments for the disease, the majority of physicians have discussed clinical trials with just 10 percent or less of their patients with Parkinson's disease (65 percent of neurologists and 54 percent of primary care physicians/gerontologists) and have never referred a patient to a clinical trial (53 percent of neurologists and 83 percent of primary care physicians/gerontologists). These are among the highlights of a recent nationwide survey commissioned by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research and conducted by Harris Interactive® on behalf of the Advancing Parkinson's Therapies (APT) campaign.

The survey found that knowledge and opinions among U.S. Parkinson's patients closely mirror those of physicians. Almost all (95 percent) of the patients surveyed agree that clinical trials for Parkinson's are necessary to find better treatments, yet only 11 percent report that their doctor ever suggested that they participate in a trial. At the same time, those patients surveyed who are aware of trials cite support groups (40 percent) and other people with Parkinson's disease (27 percent) as the most common sources of information about trials - only 11 percent cite their doctors.

Lack of adequate information about clinical trials was identified as a barrier to clinical trial enrollment. Only 14 percent of primary care physicians, 21 percent of neurologists and 18 percent of patients surveyed indicated that they are somewhat or very satisfied with the amount of information available about clinical trials for Parkinson's disease.

"People are not getting the information they need to make decisions as to whether to participate in a trial," said Michael J. Fox. "The fewer people who go into trials, the longer it will take to develop new treatments. To meet this challenge the Parkinson's community has initiated a new campaign called Advancing Parkinson's Therapies to make sure patients and physicians are better informed."

APT Launches Online Clinical Trials Resource
The APT campaign has launched www.PDTrials.org, a major initiative designed to educate people about the importance of clinical trials, explain how clinical trials work and provide a comprehensive, user-friendly, web-based resource to enable patients and caregivers to identify and locate appropriate Parkinson's disease clinical trials. The campaign seeks to improve patient-physician communication about clinical trials and provides useful information to help patients and their physicians determine whether enrollment in a clinical trial is an appropriate option.

APT Launches Online Clinical Trials Resource
The APT campaign has launched www.PDTrials.org, a major initiative designed to educate people about the importance of clinical trials, explain how clinical trials work and provide a comprehensive, user-friendly, web-based resource to enable patients and caregivers to identify and locate appropriate Parkinson's disease clinical trials. The campaign seeks to improve patient-physician communication about clinical trials and provides useful information to help patients and their physicians determine whether enrollment in a clinical trial is an appropriate option.