Around the world International Clinical Trials Day is celebrated to raise awareness of the importance of clinical trials and research in healthcare. Take time to recognise the people who conduct clinical trials and what they do to improve public health.
The Australasian Kidney Trials Network (AKTN) designs, conducts and supports high quality clinical trials focused on improving life for people with kidney disease. Read more about the trials AKTN conducts, visit our trials pages here.
Why 20th May?
International Clinical Trials Day commemorates the day James Lind started his study to determine the cause of scurvy, he started what is often considered the first randomized clinical trial aboard a ship on May 20, 1747.
Dividing 12 sailors into separate groups and testing the effect of providing different treatments to each group, Lind was able to provide evidence of the link between fruit and preventing scurvy. This is the first recorded controlled clinical trial and changed modern medicine.