User talk:Lilk8emama
See you in class Digbymom (talk) 13:26, 5 December 2008 (UTC)
Hey Class!! I have no idea how this paragraph is coming along and I am really needing some constructive criticism or brute force lol... here is what I have so far:
Clinical Trials
[edit]Main Article: Clinical Trials
A clinical trial is a rigorously controlled test of a new treatment that has not yet been proven completely effective in humans. The clinical trials are able to take place once a treatement has proven effective on laboratory animals. The safety and quality of the treatment have already been confirmed, and the ethics review board must approve the study.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health offer various stem cell treatment trials to the public. The government lists clinical trials for those suffering from cancer, osteoporosis, and many hemoglobin diseases. All of these are located at their website: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?term=stem+cell. This website allows those interested in alternative treatments to check the availabilities and locations of clinical trials being performed all over the country. For example, one clinical trial at St. Jude Children's hospital is actively recruiting children affected with osteopetrosis. Currently the only effective therapy is hematopoeietic stem cell transplant from a HLA identical matched sibling donor. The aim of this trial is to determine if partially matched parental donors or "haploidentical" stem cell donors will also be curative. [1] Many medical and graduate universities are researching stem cell treatments, and their websites typically provide detailed explanations and availabilities of active clinical trials as well.
Since stem cell treatment is a controversial topic, it is highly disputed by most health insurance companies. However many companies, especially in Europe, offer human clinical trial policies for the research institutions wishing to perform the trials. [2] The patient also faces many health care expenses and risks when partaking in a clinical trial. Since December 2001 Medicare Insurance has covered clinical trials. [3] Most people who participate in Medicare are over the age of 65 and likely to suffer from many of the diseases or illnesses scientists today are interested in treating with stem cells.
You have some good formatting instincts and are doing well to make the links and to provide some citations. Here are some things to think about: 1)capitalize Health. 2) the gov't does not propose stem cell clinical trials -- another word is needed here. 3)it would be useful to provide minimal information about what a clinical trial is so that a reader does not have to take the link to find out the basics. 4) is there one clinical trial about which you could provide a bit of info to give the reader the general idea of what is involved? 5) are there general things you can say about a study that is in clinical trial -- like what kinds of hoops have already been jumped? -- are they safe? etc. 6) Where have you collected info so far? Are there places that you are overlooking? I'm not sure what they might be -- but say for instance, is there a general statement at some oversight group on insurance coverage? 7) are there any common features that make a set of therapies more likely to be in the clinical trial stage? what kind of cells were used? are they 'contained' in some way? 8) are there any studies in the lit reporting on the results of clinical trial.Digbymom (talk) 00:54, 10 December 2008 (UTC)