Answers to questions you may have about patient referral to Therapeutics Clinical Research...

Why should I send a patient to you?

• Because of TCR’s commitment to research, we may be able to offer a better therapy than currently available for your patient.
• Patients with difficult to treat diseases or who have been unresponsive to their current treatment can access additional, not yet freely available therapies.
• Patients with poor or non-existent health care insurance can receive state-of-the-art care at no cost to them.
• Patients are followed closely to ensure their safety, often having far more frequent visits and examinations compared to traditional practice.
• We treat a wide variety of skin diseases and are comfortable with aggressive therapy, when needed.
• We have a very short waiting time for new patients, unlike other practices where a patient might have to wait weeks or even months to be seen.
• Rest assured that we will keep you informed of your patient’s progress if you so desire.
• Patients will incur NO COSTS if enrolled into a research trial.  In fact, patients generally get paid to participate.
• We dispense our medications from the office so patients WILL get the medication if enrolled in a study, with no pharmacy hassles, no prior authorizations, no substitutions. 

 What specific studies are you doing?

Our range of available studies changes frequently.  Please click on the links above to access information about ongoing studies for each disease category.

Are you competent?

We have conducted more than 100 research trials covering many diseases in dermatology.  Our ‘specialty’ within dermatology is research. We have been audited by the FDA and have not received any unfavorable citations or warnings.

Will I lose my patient to you?

We hope not.  We will keep you informed of your patient’s condition as you desire.  For problems or issues that are not part of a patient’s research participation, we encourage the patient to return to their referring physician to manage those problems.

Will the research harm my patient?

• We strive to make patient safety our number one consideration.  It is extremely rare for a patient under our care to have an irreversible event that is due to research study participation.
• Our studies are always overseen by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) whose primary goal is to ensure that a patient’s rights and welfare are maintained.  If the IRB says we cannot do something because it is not safe or the patient has not been informed of that risk, then we do not do it.
• Informed consent forms for our patients often stipulate that medical costs for problems developing from the study medication or treatment will be paid, on behalf of the patient, by the research sponsor.

Aren’t you just churning through research to make a living?

There is no doubt that conducting clinical research trials is how we make our livelihood.  That being said, we do not see as many patients in a given day as an average dermatology office.  Because research work can be so detail oriented, we spend additional time with patients, getting to know them as individuals.  As evidence of this, about one third of our patients in a given research study are, or were referred by, a participant in a previous research study.