VirtualMindTrial: Virtual Clinical Trials for Mental Healthcare

The recruitment of human subjects for clinical trials research is a critically important step in the discovery of new cures for diseases. However, the current major recruitment methodologies are inherently inefficient. Virtual worlds such as Second Life have great potential to help improve the clinical trial recruitment process and overcome some of the limitations. The VirtualMindTrial system is developed through Second Life as an alternative to the traditional recruitment model for clinical trials. The VirtualMindTrial system offers a simulation of clinical trials workflow and can educate potential participants with visualization of the processes involved. We believe such systems are particularly valuable in increasing self-enrollment of sufficient numbers of patient volunteers and enhancing recruitment for clinical trial studies for development of new drugs.