Your goal as a medical practice owner is to raise sales and improve the bottom line. Your patients do not care about your profitability, however. They want value for their money, and this can go far beyond how your workers make them feel and how confident they are in your skills and services. Clinical trials are the most effective way for a medical practice to reach its maximum profitability is to get its services and pricing right. A clinical trial site provides a chance to benefit from a successful medication they may not otherwise have received, which is often underserved. Providers and patients concerned should feel fulfilled knowing that they play a key role in the creation of a future new treatment or product that could help others and the field of eye care.

Why should I bring clinical trials into my practice? Because it helps to:

• Gain added income
• Build the practice
• Differentiate the practice
• Offer new treatments and innovation to the patients
• Contribute to the field
• Change up the day-to-day routine.

What to consider before starting the trials?

• What kind of trial
• Size of the Study
• Appropriate patient database
• Enough space and staff
• Time commitment
• Proper equipment
• Enough finding
• ‘Other investigators
• Outside hurdles

Before you start, take your time evaluating these things. Here are some important practical and logistical questions to ask:

• What kind of trials do I want to do? What types of treatments or technologies do I want to study?
• How many patients would I need to enroll and complete to achieve clinically significant findings?
• Is my patient database large enough to accomplish my goal, or will I need to recruit outside patients?
• Do I have space and staff to properly participate? This includes enough exam lanes for efficient patient flow, a waiting area large enough to accommodate participating patients, and sufficient staff and technicians to handle the planned patient volume.
• Do I have enough time in my schedule? Am I willing to work longer hours and/or weekends?
• Do I have the proper technology/equipment needed?