Questionnaire for patients undergoing therapy for the hepatitis C

We are a student research team, participating in the 2012 iGEM competition and in our project we are developing a new type of a biological drug delivery system as a new treatment possibility.

This questionnaire is anonymous and the answers will help us with our project.

Instructions: Circle the number before the answer that is most true for you. Please answer honestly and skip any questions you do not wish to answer.

Age:...............

Education:

1. Primary school
2. High school
3. Student
4. University education
5. PhD

A short description of our project:
Biopharmaceuticals are among most effective and most expensive drugs for the treatment of viral hepatitis, diabetes, cancer and other diseases. Standard therapy with biological drugs requires multiple doses, often as daily or weekly injections of the biological drug, that is usually obtained from mammalian cell cultures and purified. The idea of our project is to use drug producing cells and enclose them in microcapsules that would be administered directly into the target tissue. The therapy would allow for noninvasive regulation under medical supervision. It would be possible to control and eventually destroy the therapeutical cells, when the therapy is no longer needed. We believe this new approach would reduce side effects, since the therapeutic would be continuously synthesised in its target tissue and drug concentrations elsewhere in the body would be lower. This kind of therapy would be more efficient and widely available compared to standard treatments in use today.

1. Do you understand the description of our project?
   Yes
   No
   Not really, I would like to know more about ....
   


2. Are you receiving treatment with biopharmaceuticals?
   Yes
   No
   Not currently, but I have previously.
   


3. Do you agree that biopharmaceuticals in Slovenia are available to all patients who need them?
   Yes
   No
   I do not know
   


4. Do you believe that the high price limits the use of biopharmaceuticals?
   Yes
   No
   Partially
   I do not know
   


5. Are you experiencing any adverse effects because of the interferon treatment?
   No side effects
   Mild side effects
   Strong side effects
   I haven't been receiving therapy yet
   


6. How much does the need for the repetitive injections of interferon adversely affect the quality of your life?
   Strongly
   Medium
   Not at all
   


7. Do you think it would be beneficial to develop a therapy with human cells which would produce biological drugs inside the diseased tissue and thus reduce both side effects and the need for frequent drug application?
   Yes
   No
   Maybe
   


8. Which of the following would be most important for you regarding that kind of treatment:
   Efficiency
   Safety
   Price
   Ethical considerations
   


9. Would you participate in a clinical study using that kind of therapy?
   Yes
   No
   Maybe
   


10. Would you change your mind if you knew the cells are genetically modified?
    Yes
    No
    


11. Do you know what synthetic biology is?
    Yes
    No
    I have heard about it
    


12. Do you support the use of synthetic biology for solving health issues and developing biofuels or new materials?
    Yes
    No
    Maybe
    


13. Would you be willing to consume genetically modified food (GM food) that would have better taste, looked more appealing or would be healthier in general?
    Yes
    No
    Maybe
    

Online questionnaires (in Slovenian language)

The questionnaire for journalists

The questionnaire for the general public

The questionnaires for the general public and for journalists were the same as for the patients only without questions 2, 5, 6, 9 and 10. The only difference between the questionnaire for journalists and the one for the general public were the questions about personal detailes (course of study, place of employment).

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