Teletrials, the new norm? Expert recommendations for teletrials into the future: Findings from the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia Clinical Trial Research Professionals Group Workshop.

INTRODUCTION: The Australasian Teletrial Model was piloted in co-funded sites across Australia. The purpose was to extend the reach of clinical trials using telemedicine to improve equity and access to this treatment pathway for oncology patients. Experts across Australia gathered to share the learnings of implementation so that future directions can be effective and sustainable. METHODS: The 1-day workshop was attended in person and virtually. Attendees were invited to analyze and disseminate the results. Recordings from the presentations were coded independently by three researchers and synthesized. The results were sent to the authorship team for further review to build consensus on the findings in three drafts. RESULTS: Four key themes were identified: "Being on the Same Page," "Building Foundations," "Key Roles in Teletrials," and "Incentives." Although there were many successes that were accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, there is work still to be done. CONCLUSION: The Australasian Teletrial Model has been identified as acceptable and feasible. Future directions need to continue to work on streamlining regulatory processes, implementation and monitoring, and build knowledge to further build networks across Australia.

Recruitment, outcomes, and toxicity trends in phase I oncology trials: Six-year experience in a large institution.

BACKGROUND: With the rapid influx of novel anti-cancer agents, phase I clinical trials in oncology are evolving. Historically, response rates on early phase trials have been modest with the clinical benefit and ethics of enrolment debated. However, there is a paucity of real-world data in this setting. AIM: To better understand the changing landscape of phase I oncology trials, we performed a retrospective review at our institution to examine patient and trial characteristics, screening outcomes, and treatment outcomes. METHODS AND RESULTS: We analyzed all consecutive adult patients with advanced solid organ malignancies who were screened across phase I trials from January 2013 to December 2018 at a single institution. During this period, 242 patients were assessed for 28 different trials. Median age was 64 years (range 30-89) with an equal sex distribution. Among 257 screening visits, the overall screen failure rate was 18%, resulting in 212 patients being enrolled onto a study. Twenty-six trials (93%) involved immunotherapeutic agents or molecular targeted agents either alone or in combination, with only two trials of cytotoxic agents (7%). Twenty-two (13.4%) of the 209 treated patients experienced a total of 33 grade 3 or higher treatment-related adverse events. There was one treatment-related death (0.5%). Of 190 response-evaluable patients, 7 (4%) had a complete response, 34 (18%) a partial response, and 59 (31%) experienced stable disease for a disease control rate of 53%. The median overall survival for our cohort was 8.0 (95% CI: 6.8-9.2) months. CONCLUSION: The profile of phase I trials at our institution are consistent with the changing early drug development landscape. Response rates and overall survival in our cohort are superior to historically reported rates and comparable to contemporaneous studies. Severe treatment-related toxicity was relatively uncommon, and treatment-related mortality was rare.

'The ones that got away': implementing an exit policy for nurses in a public hospital.

The shortage of registered nurses in Victoria led a Melbourne metropolitan hospital to analyse their recent staff attrition rate. This analysis highlighted the importance of having an exiting policy in place for all departing staff. An exit policy can provide unique opportunities for hospitals to collect information that may help reduce future employee turnover through the identification of the causes of employee dissatisfaction. This paper will discuss the literature and outline the project that aided in the analysis of the hospital's attrition rate and development of a practical exit policy.