Professor Christoph Gleiter, Visiting Professor at the Department of Clinical Pharmacology of Yerevan State Medical University; the scientific director of the “Clinical Research” courses of the Center for Health Sciences and Medicine in Germany, Doctor of Clinical Pharmacology at Tübingen University, is impressed with the YSMU “COBRAIN” center. He is convinced that the structure is comparable to similar structures in any other country at the global level and can contribute to the development of science worldwide.
From October 24 to November 1 of last year, the Professor was on his second working visit to Armenia. One of the goals of his visit was to support the coordination of clinical research and adaptation of the relevant department’s documents at the Knowledge and Technology Transfer Office of the Scientific and Educational Center for Fundamental Brain Research, as well as to exchange experience.
German Professor told about the areas of cooperation, its results and prospects:
– When and how did your cooperation with YSMU start?
– The cooperation started with the visit of “COBRAIN” team to Tübingen University in January of 2023. We started the very first discussions on the clinical trial center, on the steps to develop it, and on the basic work that needs to be done. Then I came in April last year, we had a first very intensive week developing our first steps. In the meantime, when I left, we had a lot of exchange, documents.
– How would you describe the recent level of cooperation?
– This is a wonderful cooperation because we can discuss everything very freely and have a good response, and I think the development of the institution is growing. I hope during my next visit I will see the first trials, and there will be the first results.
– Share, please, your ideas and plans about professional development.
– We are planning to have some accredited trainings for physicians, researchers who will be interested in clinical trials. There will be some trainings for the members of Ethics Committee to increase professional skills. One of our main purposes will be to have clinical research coordination units in YSMU which will help principal investigators and researchers to be more involved in clinical research and bring new opportunities to the staff.
– What is the current sphere of your interests?
– I’m a physician by training. Then I further specialized in clinical pharmacology. This is my current specialty. Then from the clinical pharmacology there was a step into clinical trials – the development of clinical trials and clinical trial research environment in Europe mostly for many-many years.
– What is your advice to future colleagues?
– Just try to understand these processes. And this is not easy because these processes got really complicated. So, you have to integrate more psychologically, you have to integrate more scientific input, legal input, more international and local guidelines. You should learn about this in order to have a good structural basis for clinical trials which still afford medical knowledge and scientific approach.
Author: Tatevik Ghazaryan
Photo: by Mary Galstyan
