NorTrials topic in EMJ Podcast

Myhre is head of the The NorTrials Centre for Cardiovascular Diseases, and is invited to EMJ Podcast to talk about cardiology. Podcast host and professor Jonathan Sackier talks to him for 35 minutes - over three episodes of ten minutes each - and in episode 2/3 Sackier asks questions about the NorTrials initiative and how this can contribute to future treatments in cardiac medicine.

- As the leader of NorTrials cardiovascular, you are at the forefront of a government supported initiative on increasing Norwegian participation in clinical trials in cardiology, in collaboration with hospitals across the country. In that way cardiovascular disease may have some unique aspects in your country. Tell us about the biggest challenges in boosting trial participation, and how you see this initiative shaping the future of cardiovascular treatment in your country, says Sackier.

- Yes, this fantastic initiative came all the way from the government, which is basically to support stronger collaboration between the industry – which many look bad upon – and us in academia and hospitals. This is a relationship that we need to have because we are moving the forefront of development of medicine. The industry is developing the majority of the new treatments. But they need to find the patients, and the patients are with us in the hospital. So we need to have a collaboration, and it needs to be healthy and regulated. This is what the NorTrials is trying to support. For many years the trial participation in western countries have been decreasing – for many reasons, and I think part of it is because of the complexity of the trials is increasing. It takes a lot of effort to be part of a clinical trial today. Secondly, the clinical demand is increasing in all countries. And finally there has been a lot of awareness about the collaboration with the industry. It was quite a Texas situation 10-20 years ago with unhealthy relationship with industry. The NorTrials initiative is trying to support a healthy relationship where we do enroll Norwegian patients into multinational large trials, sponsored by industry, in order to provide better care and develop new treatments for patients – which is the over reaching goal. So I think this is a great initiative. We have received so much support from the hospitals in Norway, and it’s been a great journey. So far we have been doing it for three years, and we are going to continue to build this, Myhre says.  

Listen to the podcast: 
EMJ Podcast, Episode 251: Tackling Heart Failure

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