Happy Clinical Trials Day

Clinical trials can be traced back as far as 1537, when Ambroise Paré, a French military surgeon, conducted an unintentional trial on battlefield casualty wounds. Before this unintentional discovery, soldiers' wounds used to be treated with hot oil which had adverse effects and resulted in low survival rates but this changed when they had run out of oil. The lack of oil made Paré get creative and tried a digestive mixture of turpentine, egg York and rose oil which sealed the soldiers’ wounds better and made them experience less pain, minimal inflammation and irritation and most of them survived.

Clinical trials are now celebrated every year on the 20th of May as clinical trials day where the clinical research community come together to reflect, recognize and admire the work done through clinical trials and celebrate the people involved in the contribution toward the advancement of medical and patient care. Clinical trials have been the driving factor in the advancement of medical research and patient care thanks to the founding father Dr. James Lind who conducted the first controlled clinical trial known as the Scurvy trial in 1747. Scurvy is a disease caused by a severe vitamin C deficiency caused by not eating enough fruits and vegetables which leads to bleeding gums, loosened teeth and bleeding under the skin. Scurvy was a severe disease and it killed more sailors than though died by war at sea in those days.

Dr James Lind first become a medical apprentice in Edinburgh and later joined the Royal Navy as a surgeon’s mate which is the rank in the Royal Navy for a medically trained assistant to the ship’s surgeon in the 1730s. This gave him a chance to observe the effects of scurvy and in 1747 on board HMS Salisbury, he conducted the first controlled clinical trial by dividing the 12 men with scurvy disease into six pairs and treating them. The remedies used were suggestions from other writers and they included cider, seawater, elixir, nutmeg-sized paste of garlic, mustard seeds, vinegar, orange and lemons. The pair of citrus fruits recovered well enough to look after their fellow seamen who were ill. Dr James Lind is well known in the Royal Navy as the father of naval medicine due to his efforts to solve the high mortality rate due to scurvy disease on the sea.

Clinical trials are very important since they help test new treatments by evaluating the safety and effectiveness of medication, medical devices, treatments and procedures. They also pose as a cornerstone of evidence-based medicine from the high-quality evidence collected from the trials which help in making informed decisions among healthcare professionals. Additionally, clinical trials help improve patient care by exploring and finding new ways how to assess and treat different types of diseases. This can further go as far as the development of a tailored treatment based on an individual’s genetic makeup and patient-specific conditions.

Efforts like these continue to better define and set the direction for advancement in medicine and patient care across the globe thanks to the clinical research community and all participants. Happy clinical trials day and thanks for your efforts

By

Joachim Chikadza (Student Nurse)

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