SPONSORED CONTENT
BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT
PEAK Research
ADVANCES MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE with
CLINICAL TRIALS
SPONSORED CONTENT
Participating in a clinical trial is a foreign concept to a lot of people, so perhaps the benefits of clinical trials are not as readily apparent as we had thought.
First and foremost, your participation can help others by contributing to medical knowledge and improving public health. Participants in clinical trials play a key role in drug development and discovery. Clinical trials contribute to knowledge and progress in treating and preventing diseases.
Since 2011, PEAK Research in Upper St. Clair has been dedicated to supporting medical research through clinical trials.
The most common reason individuals participate in clinical trials is that they are looking for alternative solutions to medical issues that( to this point) they have not had success treating, or they are interested in different treatment modalities.
One patient states,“ There was nothing on the market to help with my Irritable Bowel Syndrome( IBS), so I thought, why not try a clinical study? I could not believe the change in my life after I started taking the study medication. I was able to eat foods I had not been able to eat in years. I was able to go places and not have to worry about being near a restroom. My quality of life was dramatically improved.”
In other cases, patients simply cannot afford the medications to treat their nonlife-threatening conditions such as acne, keratosis, athlete’ s foot, eczema, psoriasis, rosacea and otitis, to name a few study areas offered by PEAK Research.
“ I was so happy to have found the acne studies at PEAK. The study treatment helped my daughter feel confident again. She continues to enroll in acne studies that she qualifies for. I was a little nervous, but the staff was very knowledgeable and made us feel comfortable with our decision to participate,” says another patient’ s mother.
Patients in trials receive either generic treatment being tested, an accepted standard treatment for the condition, or a placebo. There is no guarantee that any treatment received in a clinical trial will produce the desired results. Medications are part of clinical trials for a host of reasons. These can include not yet being granted FDA approval for all age groups, or testing for generic formulations of FDA-approved drugs. Generic medications must pass through the same rigorous screening and clinical trials that the original drugs undergo.
Participants receive a free medical exam, and any tests required for the trial are paid for through the study. In one case during the course of a trial a malignancy was found in its early stages in a patient enrolled in a woman’ s health care study, giving the person the chance to seek early treatment and a more positive outcome.
On other occasions, exams revealed that patients had hypertension or elevated blood levels and they were sent to their PCPs for further evaluation.
PEAK Research has been providing Pittsburgh-area residents with quality clinical studies for the past six years,
however its leaders who staff the facility have over 50 years of experience in clinical research. PEAK has the privilege of working with several local area doctors who function as lead physicians on studies, as well as some who refer patients for trials that can benefit them. PEAK also reports to a central institutional review board( IRB) that provides scientific oversight for clinical trials. An IRB is an independent committee of doctors, statisticians, and community members helping to ensure that clinical trials are ethical and that participants’ rights are protected. PEAK Research is dedicated to excellence and committed to the future.
The research facility is conveniently located in Upper St. Clair in the Summerfield Commons Complex, which means no traffic, searching for parking, or parking fees.
PEAK Research currently is seeking participants for upcoming studies in the areas of dermatology, primary medicine, women’ s health and vaccines. A full list of the current studies can be found on the PEAK Research website at peak-research. com. For more information or questions about being a participant, contact the office at 412.595.7681.
Bethel Park | Spring 2017 | icmags. com 55