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.
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