New medication undergoes a series of stages to determine the safety, efficacy, side effects and dosage before licensure. This process is known as the phases of clinical trials/clinical research. Medication is used to cure, halt, prevent disease and ease symptoms and minimize disease complications.
What is clinical research?
Clinical research is a field in health science that initiates and runs new medication from inception up to licensure. The new medication goes through different phases: from the Molecular phase, the Animal phase, and then Phases 1, 2 3 & 4. During these phases, efficacy, and safety as well as medical devices are evaluated.
In addition, clinical research contributes towards the continuous improvement of patient’s quality of life and prevents premature deaths/ complications.
In Clinical Trials, researchers learn more about disease progression and prevention of complications that can end up in avoidable deaths. The outcome contributes to Policy Development and New methods of treating diseases. Health Guidelines are continuously amended to match new and old management of diseases.
CRISMO is a 21st-century Clinical Research Company.
CRISMO is an acronym for Clinical Research Investigator Site Management Organisation. Has two sites in the Ekurhuleni District, one clinical research site based inside Bertha Gxowa Hospital and the headquarters in Lambton. CRISMO was established and registered as a private entity in South Africa in 2015.
We are a transformational Site Management Organisation that operates within the clinical research industry to accelerate scientific research. It conducts ethical clinical trials and develops capacity in public hospitals through the development of research infrastructure. The aim is to capacitate the South African public health institutions through skills, training, and systems required to produce new research investigators, scientific researchers and internships for graduates who have achieved academically and need exposure to be employable in the open labour market.
Our Research Centre at Bertha Gxowa Hospital is the first site to be established in collaboration with the Ekurhuleni Health District under the Family Medicine Unit and is supported by the Gauteng Department of Health.
We follow the international, national, and local regulatory guidelines for the conduct of clinical trials and submits all trial protocols to the National Health Research Ethics Council (NHREC) and South African Health Product Regulatory Authority for approval (SAHPRA)
Seven years in the research space.
In January 2023, we celebrated our 7-year milestone in the clinical research space and officially launched the Bertha Gxowa Hospital-based site.
In June 2022, the Central University of Technology (CUT), Centre for Quality of Health and Living (CQHL) in the Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences in the Free State partnered with the Clinical Research Investigator Site Management Organisation (CRISMO) to develop clinical research opportunities in the Free State region.
The partnership was aimed at providing education and training in research for both undergraduates and postgraduate students.