From left to right: Laura Persijn, Dr. Sevasti Karamaria, Prof. Dr. Ann Raes, Daphné Christiaens, Dr. Lieve Nuytinck, Dr. Eva Degraeuwe, Prof. Dr. Johan Vande Walle

 

After three years of hard work, we are proud to present the progression and the situation we position ourselves in today.

Before conect4children (c4c), the sites within our network experienced big challenges in starting up and conducting clinical trials, as well as gathering expertise to facilitate these processes and trying to resolve (re-occurring) issues. At that time, there was also a lack in quality when completing feasibility requests, the use of (smaller) collaborative sites were not taken into account and the availability of centralised support was non-existent.

Within these last 3 years, we have grown into a well-connected and strengthened network of 15 clinical sites. We initially started with 6 university hospital sites, gradually expanding to 8 and adding 7 more non-university hospitals within the last year. This group of sites is providing a large pool of potential paediatric participants, much needed within the goals of the c4c project.

Due to the expertise and infinite support of our national hub team, facilitated through the c4c network, these sites are now able to attract and get selected for academic and industry trials whilst ensuring high quality work within shortened timelines.

In addition to the support in the c4c Proof of Viability (PoV) studies, our Belgian hub has (among others) actively participated in many c4c activities. Our project manager has initiated the c4c young investigators community, providing an opportunity to project managers within the c4c network to get to know each other and focus on the community as well. Moreover, our hub team aims to launch a mentoring program in the fall of 2021.

As you can see, our Belgian hub feels very passionate about the c4c project and is working diligently to support it in any possible way. We would like to emphasize that we could not have done any of this without the continuing guidance and inspiration of our c4c colleagues.

We look forward to the next steps!