During recent years we have been expanding our interaction with patients and patient feedback. We now have an official patient outreach program with numerous outreach projects such as our ‘Blankets 4 Babies’ and ‘Breadtags for Wheelchairs’ programs. You can find these on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/TREADResearch

TREAD Research has recently undertaken an initiative whereby the two official TREAD patient advocates – Lionel Moodley and Livelle Diergaardt – have agreed to come into site twice a month for roughly 1½ -2 hours for a patient interaction session and debriefing. They will be compensated for their time and effort.

The purpose of these sessions will be for the site to gain patient feedback without the inherent bias of talking to site personal. With the industry moving forward in the direction of patient centricity we feel that such information could be vital in converting the buzzword of ‘patient-centricity’ into truly patient centric trials.

The advocates have both participated in a number of trials at TREAD and thus, have a good insight into clinical trials from the patient’s perspective. These debriefing sessions will serve as to guide the direction of the program as well as to build up a database of clinical trial patient feedback which could prove important should the industry truly move into a more patient-centric area.