State-of-the-Science Web Site Captures New Ideas for Clinical Research

Extract

When the National Cancer Institute announced a restructuring of the national clinical trials system, one of the goals was to assure that the best ideas proceed quickly from the laboratory into the clinic. To facilitate this process, State-of-the-Science meetings are bringing together small groups of clinical and basic scientists from academia, industry, and the community as well as patient advocates in a dialogue geared to identify future clinical research opportunities.

“The unique and challenging part of these meetings is bringing together individuals with a variety of expertise and background who don’t necessarily interact on a regular basis with each other, at least not in terms of the specific disease at hand,” said Scott Saxman, M.D., organizer of the small-cell lung cancer workshop held in September 1999.

To disseminate the results of the meeting, NCI has created a State-of-the-Science Web site (http://www.conference-cast.com/webtie/sots/sots.htm). The site provides access to transcripts, slides of presentations, and summaries of breakout sessions at the State-of-the-Science workshops.