Canada’s Clinical Research industry is healthy and appears to be growing
faster than ever. Hospitals, medical research centers and pharmaceutical firms
have been increasing their clinical research activities, and in particular
their use of clinical trials. In turn, this has opened up a large new field of
careers in this industry, including Clinical Research Associates and Clinical
Research Coordinators.
Ontario is home to a large number of public research facilities that conduct
clinical trials. This includes the University
of Toronto, Princess Margaret
Hospital, the Hospital
for Sick Children, the Ottawa Heart Institute and the London Health Sciences Center.
Furthermore, more than 800 life sciences companies operate in Ontario, employing 40 000 people and
generating more than $10.7 billion in annual revenues.
The appeal of Canada as a
center for clinical trials is due to several factors, including the government
support for Research and Development (R&D) and the demographic and ethnic
diversity of our population. This is helping to boost expansion of clinical
research facilities throughout the country. For example, the Ontario Institute
of Cancer Research is investing $11 million in 2008 to build a network of 30
clinical trial sites throughout the province.
One important issue for clinical
research development in Canada
is being able to find qualified professionals who can manage clinical trials.
The people now entering this field are Canadian and Internationally Educated
Health Professionals (IEHPs) such as internationally trained physicians,
surgeons, nurses, research scientists, investigators and academics; university
graduates with Masters, Doctorates or Bachelor degrees; other scientists,
bio-statisticians, analysts, data managers, programmers; health-care managers
and administrative personnel, to name a few.
They view the Clinical Research
Associate profession as one that will allow them to utilize their experience
and skills in the health-care field.
The field of Clinical Research is a
unique health-related activity because it draws on a variety of different
health-care professionals and individuals with health-related training, which
come together to contribute different areas of knowledge and skills to a common
objective.
All these people work together in the exciting field of Clinical
Research.
