More Doctors in the US Are No Longer Doing Clinical Research–Too Difficult and Expenses Are too High As More Trials Move to China

So many still think that doctors are highly paid positions and that’s not necessary so. It does cost money and takes time to do research as quoted in this article from Reuters, so they quit. In the meantime China’s world of clinical trials are growing and some pharma companies said that they can’t afford to conduct trials in the US.

Dr. Wes was also talking this week about re-certification to remain board certified in cardiology,for his 2 certifications and then there’s no compensation for any time off work to attend. To conduct clinical trials of course there’s some certifications involved here depending on the trial. In other countries income for doctors who do clinical trials do have an increase in income for their time and efforts. Again with our current healthcare model, if you can call it that in the US, is skewed to where the processes we have and some of the software reporting gets too complicated and too involved to encourage more to participate.

Also worth a mention is “time” and some are finding it tough enough just to take care of patients without the adding on trials to their already over burdened schedule. You could almost forget any physician working in a busy hospital environment whether it be a full or part time hospitalist as they have to focus on coding so they would have no time here but on the other hand probably get a better view of patients who would be able to participate as they see everything when admitting. BD

The Hospitalists Have Become The Gatekeepers for Effective Hospital Coding & Sometimes Bear the Burden Alone

Under the surface, however, a growing number of doctors are worried about the tectonic changes in drug research. They resent the export of clinical trial work, which they blame not only on industry's endless pursuit of lower costs but also on the increasing red tape surrounding trial procedures at home.

"Many of my colleagues have just thrown in the towel and say 'I'm not going to do clinical research anymore'," says Dr. Michael Crawford, professor of medicine and chief of clinical cardiology at University of California-San Francisco, one of the top medical schools in the United States.

"It's pervasive. They've just quit clinical trial work. It's just too difficult and the expenses are so high you end up being in the red when you do a study."

For now, the world's emerging economies still play second fiddle to the United States when it comes to testing drugs. Clinicaltrials.org, a website run by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, currently lists more than 106,000 trials around the world, of which just over 50 percent are in the United States. But the balance is shifting, particularly when it comes to the big late-stage trials that really matter in deciding whether a drug is approved for sale. U.S. centers account for only 43 percent of the nearly 19,000 trials in final Phase III testing.

"Drug companies will surely vie for such a market," says Zhang. "Now, more Chinese can afford to buy Western-made drugs. So instead of performing a trial in China only after completing trials in Europe or the U.S., why not conduct them all at the same time?"

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