Your Clinical Trials 101

As someone who is informed about their health and is willing to examine all the options, you might be considering clinical trials as a solution. If you’re curious to learn more about the benefits and steps of the process, then you’re at the right place. Here at Coastal Clinical Research Specialists, we’ve put together a short Clinical Trial 101 to introduce you to the nuts and bolts of what you need to know.

Diverse people discussing different types of clinical triala.

Your Trial Participation Benefits

Access To More Healthcare Options

By participating in clinical research, you’ll have access to cutting edge healthcare options before they become released to the general public. Whether that involves new medicines, innovative therapy treatment, or better designed devices, becoming a volunteer will enable you to get treated faster than ever before.

Receive Highly Attentive Care

Everyone present in the trials will be able to guide you through with highly attentive care to make sure that you understand each and every step of the process. Part of that care includes access to innovative diagnostic tests conducted by board certified physicians. In no time, you’ll be better informed and more involved in your own healthcare.

Offset Your Cost Of Care

It’s already no secret that healthcare treatment is expensive. But by considering clinical research as an option, you’ll be able to get the treatment you need at reduced cost or completely free.

Help Advance Medicine

By simply participating in clinical research to receive specialized treatment, you’ll also feel great knowing that you’ve helped contribute to medical advancements. In helping yourself, you’ll essentially be helping millions of people receive the same treatments one day that you’ve taken yourself.

Now that you’re more familiar with the benefits of becoming a patient, you might be curious about how the whole research process is carried out. Take a look below at our short FAQ to get the gist of what you might be involved in.

FAQ

A clinical trial is part of the process of how new medications, devices, and therapies are approved to the general public. Throughout these trials, the new developments will be tested for their safety and efficacy in treating certain health problems.

In general, a new treatment development has to undergo three rigorous phases of testing before the FDA can grant approval. Phase 1 is usually small-scale, while Phase 3 is large-scale.

Informed consent is essentially the permission that you’ll grant the researcher to undergo the trials after they let you know of all the possible risks, benefits, and consequences that could occur.

A placebo is anything that might seem to be a “real” treatment in a trial but is only a “fake” treatment. For instance, a researcher could give what a patient would think to be a real pill, but is only a sugar tablet. This is so the researcher can determine if the actual treatment has any real effect.

In a double-blind trial, this means that both the researcher and participant do not know whether the patient is receiving the placebo or the actual treatment until everything is over. It helps to cancel out any potential influencing factors.

This is essentially the opposite of double blind, in which both the researcher and participant know what treatment is being given out.

Compensation is usually up to the clinical researcher or sponsor themselves who organize the trials together. In most cases, you can expect to have your costs completely covered, get branded material, or receive other forms of compensation up to the researcher’s jurisdiction.

Although there are nuances between each study, you are allowed to leave a research study at any time. You should provide a reason why but are not obligated to do so.

Confidentiality is extremely important in medical practice. The clinical research process ensures that no one but those who are authorized have access to your personal and medical information.