Engaging Patients in Clinical Trials on Kidney Stones: Lessons Learned.

Abstract

Although kidney stone disease is one of the most common benign urologic diseases worldwide, there are significant knowledge gaps regarding care for these patients. Well-designed, high-impact clinical trials are essential to close these knowledge gaps. However, there are significant barriers for clinical trials in this setting, which include ensuring continued relevance for the study population, achieving requisite accrual, and disseminating evidence back to the communities of interest. Engaging patient and caregiver partners as co-collaborators in the research team can address many of these barriers by providing insight into study ideation, clinical trial design and outcome selection, and patient-centered analytic plans. This engagement can ensure that clinical trials are relevant to the patients and caregivers who will benefit most from the results. PATIENT SUMMARY: Patients and caregivers have unique experiences and can be key partners in research. Their views can improve the research process for kidney stone disease.