COMMUNITY-BASED RESEARCH ORGANIZATIONS -- AMFAR WILL COORDINATE

About 20 groups are organizing in cities around the country to do community-based research. Recently the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR) has hired a full-time coordinator to put together a communication network for community-based organizations doing clinical trials. The coordinator is Debbie Levine, who also organized the Jul.y 1989 New York conference on community-based trials.

AmFAR's community-based clinical trials program will set up a series of conference calls to address major topics:

* Putting together multicenter trials;

* Standardizing data collection and data management;

* Communication, by conference calls, electronic mail, fax, or voicemail;

* Examining the role of community-based organizations in the parallel-track system;

* Working on the relationship of community-based clinical trial organizations and NIAID's ACTG research centers;

* Fundraising for community-based research, including government and pharmaceutical-industry support;

* How to set up Institutional Review Boards;

* Recruiting, including equal access for poor or minority patients;

* How to work with the mass media;

* How to encourage community groups to have PWA representation on all decision-making bodies.

Immediate plans are for a conference call about once every three weeks, with one representative from each group on the call. There may also be a newsletter sent to each organization.

For more information, call Debbie Levine, Coordinator of Community-Based Clinical Trials Programs, American Foundation for AIDS Research, 212/719-0654.