MJFF CEO talks collaboration and patient involvement in the research process in an oped in the February issue of "Nature Medicine".

http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v19...m0213-127.html

"Money without collaboration won't bring cures", by Todd Sherer

"Patients, for their part, are stepping up in the tens of thousands to collaborate in the scientific process, and they help define the most crucial needs for drugmakers' attention. For instance, MJFF's Fox Trial Finder, an online tool that combines matches volunteers to trials on the basis of several factors (including geography, treatment history and individual preference) and allows for anonymous two-way messaging between volunteers and clinical trial teams, has exploded since its launch by our foundation in April 2012. More than 12,000 registrants have signed up to date, and we're well on our way to the kind of volunteer army that can help make the most expensive phases of research more efficient and affordable for trial sponsors. It's a strong start, but more volunteers are needed, and greater resources are required to educate patients and their loved ones about the vital part that only they can play to keep research moving forward.

It is incumbent on us all to conceive new models that buck old-school competition and secrecy, to share data early and often and to advocate locally and nationally for the attention, creativity and dollars that will keep science moving forward. Together, we can make cures inevitable. The choice is ours."