For Patients
This page is dedicated to educating you about the entire clinical research process, providing a better understanding of what participating in clinical trials means and what to expect when you participate. It includes an overview of potential benefits of participating in clinical trials, FAQs, and valuable resources to help you make an informed decision about your participation.
Why Enroll
Innovation
Special Access
Compensation
Frequently Asked Questions
Clinical trials are part of clinical research and at the heart of all medical advances. They look at new ways to prevent, detect, or treat diseases. Trials can study new drugs or combinations of drugs, new surgical procedures or devices, or new ways to use existing treatments.
Clinical trials are essential in the advancement of medicine. They allow researchers to test the safety and effectiveness of new treatments or therapies, which can lead to better health outcomes for patients in the future.
Each clinical trial has its own guidelines for who can participate, often referred to as eligibility criteria. These can be based on factors like age, gender, type and stage of disease, previous treatment history, and other medical conditions.
While there are inherent risks in any medical procedure, the safety of participants in a clinical trial is a top priority. Each trial has rigorous oversight, including regular monitoring by ethics committees, to ensure that safety regulations and ethical guidelines are strictly followed.
By participating in a clinical trial, you can play an active role in your own healthcare, gain access to new treatments before they are widely available and help others by contributing to medical research.
Many clinical trials provide compensation to participants to acknowledge the contribution of their time and effort. This may also help to cover associated costs such as travel and parking. The exact details of compensation vary between trials.
Risks can include side effects of the treatment being studied and the possibility that the new treatment may not work for you, even if it works for others. The research team will fully explain these potential risks before you agree to participate.
Informed consent is a process in which researchers provide potential and enrolled participants with information about a clinical study. This information helps the person decide whether to participate. It is intended to protect individuals and ensure that they are informed of the risks and benefits of participation.
Yes, a participant can leave a clinical trial at any time for any reason. If you decide to leave a trial, you should let the research team know and tell them why you are leaving the study.
As a participant, you have the right to be informed about the study’s purpose, procedures, risks, benefits, and alternatives before deciding whether to participate. You have the right to withdraw from the trial at any time, for any reason. You also have a right to privacy and confidentiality.
Clinical trials follow rigorous protocols and are subject to oversight by ethical review boards to ensure participant safety. Measures are taken to protect participant privacy, including de-identifying personal information and storing data securely.
The research team, including the study doctors and nurses, will have access to your information. However, your personal information will be kept confidential and will not be included in any public reports about the trial.
When a clinical trial is over, the researchers will analyze the data collected. The results could be published in medical journals and shared with the medical community. Your identity will remain confidential in any publications about the trial. You can also ask the research team about the trial results.