What a week! Absolutely thrilling! Accompanied by my good friend, former university lecturer Ted, I had a meeting on Thursday with the Prof and his Clinical Research Fellow.
These guys don’t mess about – it was unbelievable. We talked about everything. Well, all the important things - like the importance of the trial being properly controlled in order to provide meaningful conclusions. We explored the means of measuring the success of the programme, recruitment of the candidates, the nature of the trial, its duration, its timing, ethics, data protection, confidentiality.....and so on.
The bottom line (sorry) is, after three hours, (during which the Clinical Research Fellow showed signs of expiring), we had a decision. What? – a decision for a secretary to arrange for my paper to be submitted to the sub-committee of a committee that sits only once in a blue moon? No! What transpired has in my experience to be a record in medical history: Getting a decision for a trial – whether yes or no - in three hours is unbelievable.
And in the end..... the Prof said YES! Yes means yes to a trial of between 10 – 15 people. This will start with a submission to the ethics committee in several weeks. When they are satisfied, the candidates can be selected and then.... the fun really starts. I shall be keeping you posted with the progress as it happens. Let the trial begin!
I'm going to ask the Porf and his Clinical Reaearch Fellow for their permission to reveal their identity on this blog and to tell you more about them. They are really amazing people - as borne out by their astonshingly pragmatic and masively sensible approach. Truly inspiring!
I’ll let you know what happens next.
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