NEWS

Clinical research center expands in Warwick

By ALEX MALM
Posted 2/16/22

For 52 years Dr. Sudhir Bansal, an immigrant from India has practiced medicine. Since 1990 he has owned his own diabetes practice on Toll Gate Road in Warwick. 

After a while Bansal became …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in
NEWS

Clinical research center expands in Warwick

Posted

For 52 years Dr. Sudhir Bansal, an immigrant from India has practiced medicine. Since 1990 he has owned his own diabetes practice on Toll Gate Road in Warwick. 

After a while Bansal became interested in doing clinical research and teaching. 

But like most doctors, especially at small practices he realized that it would be difficult to handle all of the administrative work that comes along with it. 

“The burden of doing that was quite a lot,” said Bansal. 

He eventually decided that he needed more support and gave up on doing clinical trials. 

Then one day  he was approached by the Care Access , a decentralized clinical trials organization that helps provide doctors with the administrative and financial help they need in order to run clinical trials. 

Bansal thought it would be a good fit and decided to partner with Care Access. His office in a small suite on Toll Gate Road would become one of the first brick and mortar sites for Care Access in the country. 

“He accepted us and we got to grow into the company we are today,” said Grace Purkey, a Patient Educator for Care Access. 

Bansal said Care Access “provided me what it needs, all I had to bring home was the medical skills.”

“That’s the nice thing about Care Access, we kind of do all the grunt work and we are able to partner with local physicians and bring research to the community this way,” said Purkey. 

On Dec.1 the Warwick site moved across the hall into Dr. Stephen Matarese’s office. Matarese has practiced ovarian medicine in Warwick for close to 30 years.

“This was an eye opening experience for me,” said Matarese who never imagined going into clinical trials.

Matarese said he was approached by Bansal who asked if he had any interest in being a sub investigator for the clinical trial office. He said at the time he was thinking about slowing down his practice.

“It seemed like a nice transition,” said Matarese. 

As a sub investigator Matarese evaluates patients before they enter the trials and then continues to do so while they are in the trials. He ultimately reports to Bansal who is the primary investigator. 

Purkey said that the primary clinical trial they are doing now is for Alzheimer's disease, particularly for preventative Alzheimer’s. 

“We're offering free Alzheimer’s screenings,” said Purkey. The screenings consist of a memory and blood test.

Celiac studies is also one they are working on which is for people who have been gluten free for six months but haven’t seen any relief from celiac. 

Purkey explained that there are biostaticians that go through and determine how many patients they need to evaluate and how many people need to go through a particular trial in order for it to be statistically significant. 

For the Alzheimer’s trial they hope to screen 30,000 patients and enroll 3,300 people across the country. Purkey said that other companies are conducting trials as well. 

Purkey said it's a Stage 3 Trial. 

“It's in the final stage before it gets sent to FDA for final approval,” said Purkey. 

Purkey said as part of the trials they are gathering data from across the country. 

“We do that so we can gather a more diverse population for the clinical trials that we operate,” said Purkey. “From that diverse population we are gathering more robust data.” 

Purkey said that another positive for Care Access is the fact that they are able to bring clinical research to more communities, noting that right now research is highly privatized and is normally at larger academic hospitals. 

“We are able to bring it to a tighter community,” said Purkey. 

Currently Care Access has over 100 locations, Purkey said and are growing. They aren’t in every state right now but hope to be one day. 

“We're working on it,” said Purkey. 

In addition to the brick and mortar sites Care Access also has 19 mobile units across the country which helps to bring clinical trials to people who normally wouldn’t be able to participate in them.

“It's a wave of the future,” said Bansal. 

Bansal said that they are particularly good for places like rural areas or areas where people typically don’t drive. 

“Care Access is opening  the door to let others use this format,” said Bansal. 

The Care Access Group in Warwick is located at 215 Toll Gate Road Suite 309. Those interested in becoming part of the trials can call 401-252-0556.

Care Access, a decentralized clinical trials organization located at 215 Toll Gate Road held an open house last week. (Warwick Beacon photo)

clinical, research

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here