Where would we be without health research and all the pioneering treatments designed to save and extend lives? Or without the everyday people who lend their time, personal experiences and bodies to science, helping make these breakthroughs possible? Thanks to a new website, there’s now a place where researchers and participants can come together.

Family Health Diary is pleased to support www.getparticipants.com –
a new online portal that puts willing participants in touch with local researchers.
Just by registering at the website, New Zealanders across the country can be linked to relevant research projects and opportunities to get involved.
Health research is what paves the way to new treatments and cures; it helps identify disease risk factors and prevent illnesses from occurring in the first place. By taking part in research you help contribute to that process, and in most cases only low-level participation is required.

Joining a study can involve as little as completing a 5-minute questionnaire, enrolling in a new treatment group or programme, or simply writing down how things are making you feel.

KEEPING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ALIVE
The website, developed by MSc graduate Jamie Mannion, could be just the tonic for New Zealand researchers who often struggle to recruit enough participants for their studies, mainly because the ideal candidates don’t realise they’re happening.
New Zealand has some of the world’s best scientists, who are right now testing world-leading therapies in Parkinson’s disease, cancer, brain injury recovery and more, yet approximately 75% of studies don’t meet recruitment targets and are subsequently abandoned or fail to produce meaningful results.

The situation amounts to a hand-brake on research, adding hugely to costs and delays in studying innovative therapies and treatments, says Jamie, who – after struggling to find participants for his own research thesis – decided to do something about it.

Now, thanks to getparticipants.com, all the researchers needing participants for studies and all the Kiwis keen to fight for better treatments and cures, can effectively come together.

WHAT DO RESEARCH STUDIES INVOLVE?
Few research studies involve clinical trials or the testing of medication – in fact such trials make up only a tiny portion of the 4000 studies requiring volunteers each year.

The studies listed on getparticipants.com include a diverse range of general health and population studies that apply to most of us. Ranging from headaches and sleeplessness through to parenting and sports research, most studies involve little more than some clinic visits and keeping track of your own health symptoms.
For anyone directly or indirectly affected by a medical, physical or physiological condition, taking part in research can be a great way to learn about your condition or to try something that may benefit you directly, or others in a similar situation.*

*All health studies operate under approval from ethical committees to ensure that participants are treated safely and ethically. Scientists conducting health research are experts in their fields, and where necessary, will conduct health screening measures before enrolling volunteers to ensure the participants are suitable for the study.

BACK PAIN STUDY – COULD YOU TAKE PART?
Eight out of 10 of us will experience back pain at some time in our lives. In fact, for half of us who get back pain, it will be present in some form over the next four years, but for 5% of us, it stays. Why?

Despite huge advances in rehabilitation and pain science, it is still largely unknown why the pain goes away for some and stays with others.

A study into back pain currently being conducted by the University of Otago aims to identify the causes and help prevent back pain from becoming chronic. If you’re aged between 18 and 65 and are experiencing an acute bout of back pain, you might want to take part. Visit www.backpain.getparticipants.com for more.



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