Ministry: Digital health database to make research more efficient
The web site will make it easier for patients to seek out trials on new medications, procedures and devices, as well as allowing researchers to find participants more easily.
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICHA research scientist holds a vial marked "Zika" (photo credit: REUTERS)
The Health Ministry has launched a Hebrew-language digital database of clinical research conducted in 41 medical specialties in Israeli hospitals.The web site will make it easier for patients to seek out trials on new medications, procedures and devices, as well as allowing researchers to find participants more easily.Prof. Eyal Schwartzberg, head of the ministry’s pharmaceutical and enforcement division, said he was proud to open the site to the public.“It is good news for everybody who is seeking innovative treatments with drugs and devices that are not yet being marketed.It is unique and puts the patient in the center,” he said.Clinical studies are controlled research experiments that explore whether a medical strategy, treatment or device is safe and effective for humans. These studies, which in lab studies have been shown not to cause significant harm, also may show which medical approaches work best for certain illnesses or groups of people.Such studies are basic in the process of official approval for new medical technology that can save lives or improve the quality of life, but their safety to humans must be clearly established.Only when the results are clear and promising can the licensing process begin.The collection of research databases includes studies in oncology, urology, orthopedics, clinical immunology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, nephrology, cardiology, hematology, anesthesiology, surgery, genetics, pulmonology and many other specialties.The aim of the site, continued Schwartzberg, is to make participation in such studies more accessible to the public and make it easier for researchers to find participants.All of the listed studies have already been approved by the hospitals’ or the ministry’s Helsinki committees on human medical experimentation.There are also details in simple language on the conditions or diseases for which the intervention is proposed, criteria for inclusion and non-inclusion in studies and the medical centers where they are being conducted, as well as details on how to contact researchers. No results of studies, however, are published on the website, which is regularly updated.The project is the result of cooperation between the Health Ministry and the Social Equality Ministry’s Digital Israel Headquarters.The address is