Clinical trials are research studies using volunteers (also called participants) that aim to determine whether a medical strategy, treatment, or device is safe for use or consumption by humans.
Clinical trials answer the following questions:
- Is a new treatment safe to use?
- Does the new treatment have a positive or negative effect on patients’ disease?
- Is the new treatment better than the current standard treatment, or other treatments that might be available?
- Which patients benefit the most from a new treatment?
These studies may also present which medical approaches prove most effective for specific conditions or groups of people and, as a result, add to medical knowledge. Today’s clinical trials will lead to new standards of care in the future.
Resources
- Search for Clinical Trials
- What are Clinical Trials?
- The Phases of Clinical Trials
- Understanding Clinical Trials (Interviews with Scientists)