Volunteering for Research Vaccine

[Gio]

Not sure if this goes in this site or not but oh well....


A couple of days ago I received an email from AMfar in joining clinical research on Vaccines on HIV positive individuals.  I read the article went to the website and thought to myself why not..   Trust the decision to become a human guinea pig was not taken lightly and i understood the risk.  Heres were it gets wierd!  I called the university spoke with an individual and left them my name and number.  Before the end of our conversation he asked me again what is my name and number!    Academia at its best.  I did not hear anything back.  I followed my call with an email they advised again to call the number.  I called several times left a message and nothing.. My final call i asked if they had all the volunteers and why is it so difficult to get someone to say yah or nay..  Dumbfounded silence by the person taking the information...  Now I'm just not even bothering anymore.. 

[buginme2]

The clinical trials I have seen seem to come directly from HIV doctors participating in research.  At the medical center I go to, my doctor does a lot of HIV Related cancer studies and there is another doctor who is doing a number of vaccine studies in HIV positive individuals. 

You may be having a hard time because you are contacting the University yourself?  Is there a doctor in your area that is participating in the trial you can contact directly?  Where are you at? Ive noticed a lot of clinical trials seem to be concentrated among a short list of cities. 

There is always clinicaltrials.gov for a listing of trials.   You can search by city.

[emeraldize]

Not sure if this goes in this site or not but oh well....


A couple of days ago I received an email from AMfar in joining clinical research on Vaccines on HIV positive individuals.  I read the article went to the website and thought to myself why not..   Trust the decision to become a human guinea pig was not taken lightly and i understood the risk.  Heres were it gets wierd!  I called the university spoke with an individual and left them my name and number.  Before the end of our conversation he asked me again what is my name and number!    Academia at its best.  I did not hear anything back.  I followed my call with an email they advised again to call the number.  I called several times left a message and nothing.. My final call i asked if they had all the volunteers and why is it so difficult to get someone to say yah or nay..  Dumbfounded silence by the person taking the information...  Now I'm just not even bothering anymore..

Gio

Since it's not clear how you got the number you decided to call, take bug's advice regarding clinicaltrials.gov OR go to the University conducting the research and see if they have a site or registry for the studies being conducted there. Put in some key search words and you should find what you are looking for IF the study is open to enrollment. It is possible that you read something in advance of the study's opening but most investigators don't let things go to print before enrollment is open to prevent what you seem to have experienced. Again, you don't give all the info. Don't be too quick to damn academia -- most people involved in recruitment are ready for such calls, are quick to take down a name and number and have a next step to offer --either to refer you to someone else or, most often, do a preliminary screening over the phone.  May I encourage you to do a little more sleuthing and see what you can turn up before you walk away from a study that has obviously piqued your curiosity?  If you can post the link to the article here, it might be possible for a couple of us to give you further guidance. Em

[Gio]

Thanks guys...  yeah my Doctor and his office do offer clinical trials or can refer me to someone...  btw i am located in Georgia...