In evaluating all of your treatment options, it is very important to evaluate and track all of the leading facilities that are involved in the treatment of your disease. Even if a specific hospital does not have the newest most advanced treatment for you at this time, they may have in the future. Having a list of these facilities and the relevant contacts can be crucial in making sure you are getting the most effective treatment possible.
First, Create a comprehensive Hospital / Treatment Center List to keep track of all relevant treatment facilities that are actively involved in treating your disease. Then, add all facilities listed in every article or every clinical trial that you find in your search to your comprehensive Hospital / Treatment Center List. You can create this list or log by simply writing a list on a sheet of paper or in your personal Patient Journal. For more technically savvy people, you can create an Excel Spreadsheet
You may also want to break down your list into categories. For example: Major Medical Centers, Local Hospital, Medical Groups and Private Practices etc.
Repeat this process of pulling out all relevant data from each trial until you have covered all trials listed under your disease search. Then, repeat the initial search as many times as necessary using all other variations of the disease name, and including other relevant search criteria such as locations, specific medications, and any other relevant terms you discover in your review of specific trials. It is important to regularly repeat these searches weekly to ensure that you are aware of any new trials that may be posted. Much of the information you collect in your initial search will be repeated and redundant, so once you have created comprehensive list and logs there should not be too much new information found in subsequent searches. The secondary objective here is to be aware of all new clinical trials and treatments relevant to your disease, to know who the top medical professionals are who are treating your disease, and to know where these newest and most advanced treatments are being done. The main objective here is to be proactive with this information and make sure that you are choosing the most advanced and best possible treatment option for you or any patient you represent!