Clinical Trials Day 2024
How British sailors helped identify the cause of scurvy and saved lives.
Cook Children’s Research Department oversees many clinical trials for different disease processes. We celebrated Clinical Trials Day on May 20 at Medical Center-Fort Worth with educational material provided to employees and guests.
Clinical Trials Day takes place on May 20 to recognize the good for patients that has been accomplished thanks to clinical trials and the people behind them.
Why is it held on May 20th? It is in honor of the day in 1747 when Dr. James Lind conducted the world’s first controlled clinical trial. Dr. Lind was a British Royal Navy surgeon, and designed a trial of various concoctions thought to be useful in treatment and prevention of scurvy. Scurvy had been thought to be due to multiple causes – hard work, bad water, or salt meat consumed in damp conditions, which prevented healthful perspiration and excretion. Scurvy is actually caused by vitamin C deficiency.
Dr. Lind selected 12 sailors with scurvy, divided them into cohorts, and provided them with potential remedies such as vinegar, cider, sea water, or citrus fruit: two oranges and a lemon each day. The study is considered to be controlled because all the cohorts shared the same diet as the rest of the crew who were not given the experimental remedies.
It wasn’t until 1795, nearly 50 years after Dr. Lind’s experiment, that another physician convinced the Royal Navy to routinely give lemon juice to sailors. Later, limes replaced the lemons because British Caribbean colonies could produce them more easily.
“This true story is intended to provide hope and solace to the thousands of clinical investigators who work every day--often unsuccessfully--to explore new treatments in medicine,” according to the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP).