Parkinson's Disease Foundation (PDF)

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Parkinson's Community News

Launch of PD Pipeline Therapies Database: A Gift to the Parkinson’s Community

(01/31/07) The grassroots Parkinson Pipeline Project has launched a powerful, interactive database to provide easy, public online access to current information about therapies in the pipeline and clinical trials for Parkinson’s disease. Volunteer “trackers” regularly update the PD Pipeline Database (pdpipeline.org), consolidating information from and providing direct links to diverse sources, including pdtrials.org, which features up-to-date information on relevant clinical trials currently enrolling participants in the US.

“Having this comprehensive information at their fingertips empowers patients to be informed consumers, consulting with their doctors about the promise of new and improved therapies and ways to maximize their quality of life,” says Perry Cohen, Director of the Pipeline Project. “For those able to be more involved in advocacy for their own future care, the Pipeline Project offers many opportunities to reinforce their best hopes and maintain their functioning by taking on active roles to enhance the movement of new therapies in the pipeline.”

The PD Pipeline Database boasts several innovative features including:

• A “score card” that shows at a glance the status of each treatment as it moves through the development pipeline, and allows users to “drill down” for more information on any aspect of any treatment or sponsor.
• A filter that scans treatments in the database to find those that address specific selected symptoms.
• A cumulative history of the progress of individual PD treatments through the drug development pipeline.

The database can be accessed through the Pipeline Project's newly improved website (www.pdpipeline.org) featuring expanded, more efficiently organized content, making it easier for visitors to navigate the site and find the information they are seeking.

The Parkinson Pipeline Project is a nationwide network of patient advocates who provide the unique patient perspective to actively promote policies that accelerate the evaluation, approval of safe, effective, and timely new treatments for PD and by education of trial sponsors, clinical researchers, government regulatory agencies and other patients about the process of new therapy development. The software to automate the database was custom developed by Konoso LLC, which worked closely with Pipeline Project volunteers who designed the elements and structure and gather data to continuously update the information. The Pipeline Project acknowledges the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation (PDF) for its financial support for the database through the PDF People with Parkinson’s Clinical Research Advocacy Initiative.

Questions about the PD Pipeline Database can be sent to Linda Herman at ljherman1@juno.com