Mission & Vision of St. Charles Health System Clinical Research
Vision
Central and Eastern Oregonians have direct access to the best of medical treatment and prevention
Mission
To provide direct access to the best of clinical trials to all Central and Eastern Oregonians with medical needs or disease susceptibility
Philosophy
Patient
The clinical trial must always be in the individual interest of the patient.
Patients must be well informed.
The risk of the trial must be proportional to the risk to the patient caused by the disease.
Science and Practice of Medicine
All new studies should also benefit science.
They should inform physicians how to approach their patients with the same diagnosis and prognosis.
Each clinical trial should have the best chance of providing a meaningful advance.
Safety
Not only is the risk of a clinical trial proportional to the risk of the disease, there is also an extensive array of safeguards, checks and approvals required to allow a clinical trial to be conducted as safely as possible. The St. Charles Health System has a federally regulated Institutional_Review_Board_(IRB) that reviews and approves any research conducted in human subjects within the system. Every adverse effect or deviation is required to be reported to the appropriate agency. The St. Charles IRB was last audited by the Food & Drug Adminstration (FDA) in March, 2010. Federal and Oregon state law (e. g. SB1025 passed in 2005) protect the genetic information on individuals from being used without their consent.
Financial Equanimity
The person willing to enter a clinical trial should not have to incur more expense than would otherwise cost for care without a clinical trial. Many clinical trials actually reduce expenses for the participant by providing the investigational agent or devices, which is often very expensive, at no charge to the participant. Some clinical trials reimburse the participant for travel expenses. Since January 1, 2010, all clinical trials sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the cooperative research groups and centers it supports are required to be covered by Medicare (Oregon state law SB316). As of 2014, all persons on such clinical trials will be required to be covered by their health insurance, regardless of their age, thanks to the Affordable_Care_Act of 2010.
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