ClinLife is an international patient portal for clinical trials.
Contents
It is the largest European portal of its kind and currently serves both Europe and North America. ClinLife’s website states that its mission is to assist clinical research centers in their patient recruitment efforts and to provide the public with easier, more transparent access to clinical studies. ClinLife maintains that all its services are free to the public and will always remain free. ClinLife is operated by Clariness, an independent company based in Zurich, Switzerland, and with subsidiaries in Germany, the UK, the US and Serbia.
History
The vast majority of clinical trials are delayed from the outset due to a lack of volunteers. This results in sharp increases in the amount of time the public has to wait for new, effective treatments. One aspect of this problem was that as of 2005 there wasn’t a single, comprehensive database that listed clinical studies in Germany. In December 2005 ClinLife was used for the first time in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg for a trial on diabetes. Many patients who received information at ClinLife went on to participate in the study. ClinLife expanded its services to include all of Germany in 2006. Within a few months, ClinLife was also available in Austria and Switzerland. In 2007 ClinLife began publishing trials and assisting volunteers in the UK. For the first time, ClinLife was operational in a language other than German. In 2008 ClinLife expanded once again, this time to Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Portugal. By the end of 2008, ClinLife had more than 1 million visitors. In 2009, ClinLife travelled across the Atlantic and set up its platform in both Canada and the US, and shortly thereafter, in Hungary and Turkey. More than 600 trials on over 60 illnesses have been published by ClinLife, and more than 30,000 patients have been put in contact with clinical trial centers, also known as clinical sites.
Current status
ClinLife is available in 11 languages in 16 countries and has 120,000 active members. The portal provides general information about illnesses and about clinical trials. The site publishes trials, explains what they are, how they work, their ethical considerations and why they are important. Specific information about current trials is also given and a search option helps both healthy volunteers and patients with illnesses to find clinical studies on specific conditions in specific regions. An online screener tests volunteers to see if they fulfill the trial criteria and they are then given the option to be automatically directed to a clinical trial center. A newsletter service also provides members with information via email about specific trials on specific illnesses. ClinLife is operated by Clariness. Clariness works and maintains contracts with research companies and institutes.