Clinical trials are studies that determine whether a drug or device is effective at helping treat medical conditions. Every treatment available today will have undergone testing in clinical trials first. This is because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (or FDA), and similar agencies in other countries, need to know it works and is safe before it can be prescribed or distributed for general use.
Here’s why clinical trials are so important, and why trial participants or ‘volunteers’ are vital for them to work.
The importance of clinical trials
The effects drugs have on the body are investigated in clinical trials at several stages of their development. The amount of testing each potential treatment must undergo means that lots of volunteers are needed to support this work. There are many reasons that clinical trials are essential to advance healthcare:
We can learn more about a condition
Clinical trials are one of the most important ways to learn more about a given condition. Doctors and researchers can monitor any symptoms, and any effects of developmental drugs, in those with the health problems. Working with a group of people living with a particular illness can help scientists spot any trends to better understand the condition.
Working with patients can give scientists and healthcare professionals insight into ways to detect or diagnose the condition earlier, for example through identifying new common symptoms, or new ways of identifying the presence of an illness or health condition. Also, understanding more of the background and history of patients through clinical trials means that scientists may be able to find ways to reduce the likelihood of others falling ill.
Clinical trials help researchers develop new treatments
Drugs are not allowed to be given to patients as an approved treatment for broad use until they have undergone extensive testing. While we can learn a lot from investigating developmental medicines in the lab, we don’t get the full picture of how these drugs work in people. We therefore need to safely run trials to study the effects in humans.
Clinical trials need both healthy participants and volunteers who have the condition that is being studied. When volunteers participate in a clinical trial, researchers can determine that a potential drug behaves as they expect it to. This means they can establish if it’s safe and effective, and better than currently existing treatments.
We can see how treatments work across the population
Drugs may act differently for you compared to someone else, depending on many factors including your age or your gender. When developing new treatments, we want to be sure that they are as effective as they can be if you are prescribed them. Clinical trials can show us how the treatment works in different groups, and if there are any major differences between how conditions affect people. This is why it is so important that a diverse range of people participate in clinical trials, so we can better understand how the new treatment works in people of different ages, genders, ethnicities and other different characteristics.
Understanding how treatments work for different groups of people can lead to better outcomes for those involved. Approaches like personalized medicines are on the rise, offering people more individual treatments rather than the traditional ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. This can only be achieved if we learn how different patients respond through clinical trials.
They can improve your quality of life and grant early access to new drugs
Healthcare research aims to improve quality of life for patients, but requires extensive studies to do so. From diabetes to cancer, researchers use clinical trials to find new ways to reduce symptoms or treat the ailment more effectively. These trials also allow scientists to find improve treatments that may offer less side effects than existing medicines.
Clinical trials don’t just improve the quality of life of future patients, they can potentially improve it for the volunteers too. When participating in a clinical trial, you may receive developmental drugs that aren’t currently available outside of the trial. This can give you more options for your treatment pathway.
The results help future generations
Participating in a clinical trial can potentially bring benefits to you and it also helps to advance science and understanding of different health concerns. Any approved drug you have ever taken will have been tested in a clinical trial at some point. Clinical trials being run now will help new treatments be developed for the benefit of future generations.
However, clinical trials can’t be run without thousands of amazing volunteers across the world each year. Let’s look at why volunteers are so vital to advancing healthcare.
The power of volunteering for clinical trials
The FDA and similar regulatory agencies in other countries state that clinical trials are necessary before a drug is approved. However, there is (rightfully) no requirement that anybody with a given condition should participate. Therefore, new medicines rely on volunteers being willing to take part.
By volunteering for a clinical trial, you are helping researchers and healthcare providers assess how well a suggested treatment actually works. Although the developmental drugs are typically studied for years in the laboratory first, the effects can’t be fully learned unless the new treatment tested in those who need them. Researchers fully investigate the safety of the potential treatment before testing in people, minimizing risk to participants.
Whether you’re a healthy participant who wants to support a loved one, or whether you are looking for treatment for your own health conditions, you could be eligible for a clinical trial. The more diverse the set of volunteers for clinical trials, the more trends researchers can find. This can lead to better treatments for yourself and generations to come.
How can I take part?
Volunteering in a clinical trial is exactly that – voluntary. This means that you can refuse any treatment and can withdraw from the study at any time, although please let the team performing your study know before you stop participating.
