"The ACCT Centre"
On this page:
- Contact for enquiries
- What is The ACCT Centre?
- Our vision
- Our mission statement
- How does the Centre help improve the health of children and adolescents?
- Who is involved?
Contact for enquiries
Clinical Trials Coordinator
- E:
T: +61 2 9845 2358
What is The ACCT Centre?
The Australian Children's Clinical Trials Centre ("The ACCT Centre") is a paediatric clinical trials centre that exists for all clinical investigators and industry partners wishing to conduct paediatric clinical trials at The Children's Hospital at Westmead. Situated in the Kerry Packer Building, adjacent to The Children's Hospital at Westmead, it is housed within the Kids Research Institute.
There are many departments at The Children's Hospital at Westmead and Kids Research Institute conducting clinical trials.
Our vision
Our vision is to be a leading global centre for paediatric clinical trials; to promote scientific discovery; to educate and train future clinical investigators; and to improve patient care and outcomes.
Our mission statement
Our mission is to improve the health of children and adolescents by the development, evaluation and implementation of effective therapies for children and adolescents.
How does the Centre help improve the health of children and adolescents?
The ACCT Centre facilitates the growth of new knowledge about the safety and effectiveness of clinical interventions for children and adolescents. Clinical trials are necessary to gather unbiased evidence about treatments administered. It is critical to conduct trials in this age group because growing bodies can react quite differently to medication and therapies compared to adults. Health professionals cannot reliably predict the safety and effectiveness of a treatment for a child based on evidence from adult clinical trials. Despite this fact, some 70-80% of drugs given to children and adolescents have never been tested in this age group. Clinical trials in young people give paediatricians and other health professions the confirmation they need to choose the best treatment available.
There are further benefits of conducting clinical trials within a public hospital. Sometimes the best treatments available have not yet been approved for sale. They can only be accessed by being involved in a clinical trial. This is true for many cancer drugs. Hence, clinical trials allow some very sick children and adolescents access to world-best therapies at the earliest opportunity.
Recent research also shows that hospitals that conduct clinical trials actually offer a better standard of care to all their patients. This is because clinical trials must be conducted to rigid standards of excellence. These standards are then carried over to basic clinical care within the hospital. Also, hospitals that have an active research environment and are always striving to improve the safety and effectiveness of care will attract and maintain the best health care professionals.
Who is involved?
There are many departments at The Children's Hospital at Westmead and Kids Research Institute conducting clinical trials.
For any further information, please contact Dr Janelle Bowden, Clinical Trials Coordinator.
