Promoting the Place of the Allied Health Professions in Clinical Research

¹ Assistance pubique-Hôpitaux de Paris/UA 3412, Paris 13, Paris, France
² Laboratoire GSK, Marly-le-Roi, France
³ Laboratoire Takeda, Paris, France
⁴ Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France
⁵ Direction des soins, CHU Toulouse, Toulouse, France
⁶ Direction des soins, CHU Angers, Angers, France
⁷ Laboratoire Astra-Zeneca, Rueil-Malmaison, France
⁸ Laboratoire Boehringer-Ingelheim, Reims, France
⁹ Laboratoire Novartis, Rueil-Malmaison, France
¹⁰ F-CRIN, Toulouse, France
¹¹ Centre d’investigation clinique, CHU Dupuytren, Limoges, France
¹² Inserm, Paris, France
¹³ Laboratoire 3M France, Cergy-Pontoise, France
¹⁴ LEEM, Paris, France
¹⁵ Biogen Idec, Nanterre, France

Correspondence and offprints: Monique Rothan-Tondeur, AP-HP/UA 3412 Paris 13, 2 rue St Martin, bureau 61A, 75004 Paris, France. E-mail: monique.rothan-tondeur@ehesp.fr

Received: 12 May 2014
Accepted: 27 May 2014

Abstract

Clinical research is of major importance to today’s society, as scientific evidence is increasingly demanded as a basis for progress, whether this involves developing new healthcare products, improving clinical practice and care protocols or progress in prevention. Clinical research therefore requires professionals who are both experienced and increasingly well trained. Against this background, allied health professionals are becoming involved more and more, both as team members supporting clinical research projects and as managers or coordinators of projects in their own field. Clinical research activities provide an ideal opportunity for continuing professional development. All of this means that the professional skills of the allied health professions and clinical research support professions must be enhanced, their role promoted in the context of lecturer status and in the longer term, their status recognised by the supervisory authorities.