Clinical Trials

Biography

Biography: Etsubdink Abera Aboye

Abstract

Clinical trials in Ethiopia and other developing nations can generally be considered to be in its embryonic stages. The share of studies registered from Africa (in Clinicaltrials.gov) updated as of June 2017 is only 0.025%, although the region represents about 15% of the population of the world; and Ethiopia represents only 1.5% of all the studies from Africa.

Though clinical trials provide the highest degree of evidence to support new interventions and decisions about disease management, the challenges of conducting clinical trials in Ethiopia are enormous. The basic problem arises from the country’s poor economy that resulted in underdeveloped research infrastructure such as space, supplies and maintenance affecting clinical work, communication, access, availability of basic needed inputs, and lack of trained workforce in clinical research.

Besides, there is lower prioritization of research in academic institutions considering research as a luxury; time and money consuming; and this has resulted in the establishment of very few clinical trials units nationwide. There is lack of equitable incentives for researchers due to limited sources of funding and very minimal budget allocation to clinical research activities by the government. The regulatory frameworks are also bureaucratic; and this has been discouraging to the few clinical researchers resulting in brain drain; that is a challenge in health facilities in resource-limited settings as it is associated with increasing workloads, lowering the quality of services, reducing team efficiency and causing a loss of institutional knowledge.

Moreover, poor and/or illiterate study participants and differing cultural values and beliefs may lead to recruitment, consent and follow up difficulties, which slow down trial progress from my experience in Ethiopia.