BIOGRAPHY:Trudy Flynn is a medically retired nurse and a dedicated advocate for patient-centered care and an experienced patient partner in health research. Trudy began her work in patient engagement with CIHR- IMHA, fourteen years ago, where she collaborated with other patient partners to develop a set of online, self-directed, free modules applicable to any research where patient-partners are engaged. As a member of the Maritime SPOR Support Unit patient engagement community, Trudy has actively collaborated with researchers to enhance healthcare outcomes in many areas of research. With a strong belief in the power of lived experiences, Trudy champions patient engagement to ensure diverse perspectives are represented in research and decision-making processes. Trudy also chairs a not for profit, Fibromyalgia Association Canada.
What is your interest in clinical trials? • I am interested in clinical trials because I see the need for patient partners to be more engaged in setting up these trials and ensure that everything a participant needs is in place and that the clinical trial is addressing the needs and priorities of the community involved.
Please share why you think clinical trials are important? • Clinical Trials are an important step in improving the health and quality of life for Canadians. Clinical trials are essential for advancing medical research and ensuring that new treatments are safe, effective, and tailored to our diverse Canadian population. They also provide patients with access to innovative therapies while contributing to global scientific knowledge.
Please share your personal philosophy about clinical trial training specifically or mentorship in general? • I think clinical trial training is important, for the same reason training researchers is important. The voice of the patient needs to be heard in the clinical trial because that will make them more relevant to the community they serve. While it seems common sense sometimes if you have never worked with a patient partner it is easier for both the patient partner and the researcher if courses outlining the best practices and the problems existed. For example, a training module on Tokenism can point out the many facets of tokenism and will make both a researcher / student / patient partner more aware so they ensure tokenism doesn’t happen on their project. Mentorship is important because it fosters growth, knowledge- sharing, and confidence by guiding students/ researchers through the challenges of a clinical trial, the challenges of working with patient partners and helps them reach their full potential with a well developed, relevant, clinical trial.