Accurian, Inc., is a company specializing in facilitating direct recruitment of patients to clinical trials. Increasingly, patients interested in participating in clinical trials are relying less on health care providers for referral doing more independent research, primarily on the Internet, with the goal of self referral. According to their Web site, Acurian "provides patients and their caretakers with the broadest aggregation of clinical trials on the Internet, as well as news on current, newly approved, and emerging medical therapies." 

Center Watch is a private company affiliated with the Thomson Corporation "dedicated to providing patients and their advocates with a variety of information services and educational materials on clinical research. Our web site ..provides an extensive list of IRB approved clinical trials being conducted internationally. Many of these trials may be appropriate for your participation. Our web site also lists promising therapies newly approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration)."

ClinicalTials.Gov is maintained by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) through the National Library of Medicine (NLM). It lists "approximately 26,100 clinical studies sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, other federal agencies, and private industry. Studies listed in the database are conducted in all 50 States and in over 120 countries." It provides "information about a trial's purpose, who may participate, locations, and phone numbers for more details. The information provided on ClinicalTrials.gov should be used in conjunction with advice from health care professionals."

Current Controlled Trials Ltd is a web-based publishing company that provides a range of databases and services for scientists, medical practitioners, pharmaceutical companies, patients and others with an interest in controlled trials." "The Current Controlled Trials website has been developed by Current Controlled Trials Ltd, part of the Science Navigation Group of companies (http://www.sciencenavigation.com). The Group has its head office in London (UK), with additional offices in Philadelphia, Chicago, Geneva, Amsterdam, Oslo and Tel Aviv." "Current Controlled Trials allows users to search, register and share information about randomised controlled trials. Access to all the information on this site is free; charges for the registration services offered by Current Controlled Trials are available on request. Publication services are also available via the range of open access peer-reviewed journals published by our sister company, BioMed Central."

International site--"This service is provided by the IFPMA, on behalf of its Member Companies and Associations. The portal has been designed as a single entry allowing you to search for comprehensive information on on-going clinical trials (registry) or results of completed trials (database) conducted by the innovative pharmaceutical industry."

This Web site is sponsored by the journal Neurology, which is the Official Publication of the American Academy of Neurology. The journal Neurology "is widely read by clinicians and Neurology online is heavily accessed by the public. Information on clinical trials submitted for publication in the clinical trials recruiting section and all advertisements for clinical trials must be IRB approved."

"VeritasMedicine.com is an online health resource focused on improving patient access to clinical trials and information about therapies in development for serious medical conditions. The centerpiece of VeritasMedicine.com is a comprehensive clinical trials database that allows patients to be matched to clinical trials based on information submitted confidentially. (quoted from the Veritas Medicine WebSite home page). Alzheimer and Other Dementias

WebMD is an organization whose mission is to provide reliable health and medical information to the public via the Internet. Their staff consists of board certified physicians, journalists and community experts. WebMD provides health sciences content, reference links and links to support resources.

The Alzheimer's Disease Education & Referral Center posts "The Alzheimer's Disease Clinical Trials Database" which "is a joint project of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institute on Aging (NIA) maintained by the NIA's Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral (ADEAR) Cener."

This page lists selected trials in treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's Disease from ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. government database of studies investigating experimental therapies. Trials included here are recruiting participants at more than one U.S. location. The government database includes many additional trials being conducted at a single research center.

This site is a portal to several other sites relating to clinical trials in general and those related to ALS in prarticular. the main source is ClinicalTrials.Gov

"This document is prepared as a service for the ALS community and is intended as general information. Content used in this report is obtained from informed members of the pharmaceutical industry and the ALS community."                                         

"The North American AED (antiepileptic drug) Pregnancy Registry was established in 1997 for pregnant women in the United States and Canada at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massacusetts. It was established with funds provided by six companies that manufacture "old" and "new" anticonvulsant drugs. the major objective is to obtain and publish information on the frequency of major malformations, such as heart defects, spina bifida and cleft lip, among infants whose mothers had taken one or more AEDs to prevent seizures or to treat any other medical condition. The highest priority was new information on the many "new" AEDs marketed in the past 10 years."

The Epilepsy Foundation refers back to ClinicalTrials.Gov and CenterWatch

The National Headache Foundation offers a very small listing of clinical trials with the following disclaimer:  "Occasionally, opportunities to participate in drug research studies become available. These studies are usually conducted on a widespread basis by major pharmaceutical companies. While these studies are not ones in which the National Headache Foundation has an active part, we believe providing notice may be useful to headache sufferers who with to inquire about participating."

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society maintains their own list of MS related clinical trials which are provided to them by the investigators conducting the studies. The trials are indexed by state.

"PDtials.org is a website that helps people easily find and understand Parkinson's disease clinical trials." It is "the website of the PDtrials campaign, an initiative of the major Parkinson's patient voluntary groups to accelerate the development of new treatments for the disease." The PDtrials campaign is led by the "Parkinson's Disease Foundation, in collaboration with the following advocacy groups:  American Parkinson Disease Association, Inc.; Parkinson's Action Network; The Parkinson Alliance; The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research; National Parkinson Foundation; WE MOVE." 

"Welcome to the National Sleep Foundation Clinical Trials Resource Center, presented in partnership with Thomson CenterWatch, the leading publisher of information on clinical research for patients and their advocates and healthcare professionals. Please click on the links below to learn more about clinical research and new medical therapies for treating the diseases and conditions that interest you."  

Offers links to Clinical Trial sites both nationally and in Ohio in particular. (Site is a consumer Health Information portal created and maintained by a collaboration of the University of Cincinnati, The Ohio State University and Case Western Reserve University.)

Listing of Clinical Trials supplied to WebMD Health from Thomson CenterWatch.

RehabTrials.org is sponsored by the Kessler Medical Rehabilitation Research and Education Corporation (KMREC), anon-profit organization whose mission is "to conduct basic and applied research in the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation." This site provides a registry of clinical trials geared specifically to rehabilitation populations.

The Stroke Trials Directory is "a continuously updated registry of randomized clinical trials. This project is a joint effort of the Internet Stroke Center at Washington University School of Medicine, the American Stroke Association and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke." The Directory is specifically designated for health professionals and research scientists. The site directs patients and their families to a separate page of the Internet Stroke Center, Clinical Trial Listings and Resources. The latter lists: Clinical Trials.gov; Acurian; Center Watch; Veritas Medicine; its own Stroke Trials Directory; and RehabTrials.org, also listed below.

The Stroke Information Directory was started by "family members of stroke survivors who endeavor to assist consumers, clinicians, and researchers in their quests for online resources." The organization continually gleans information from the Internet and adds resources based on suggestion from visitors to its site.