Participant Info

Improving Lives through Medical Research

Find out how you can help by enrolling in one of our current studies

Why participate in a Clinical Trial?

Without all the volunteers that participate in clinical trials, it would be much more difficult to provide new treatment options for everyone. Ever wondered why someone would ever consider participating in a trial? Check out the video below!

group of clinical trial participants

Becoming a Research Study Volunteer (overview)

By taking part in a clinical trial, you have an opportunity to try a new treatment that may or may not be better than those that already exist. As a study participant, you can also help others better understand how the treatment works in people of different races and genders because different people may respond differently to the investigational product. Regulatory agencies such as the FDA seeks to ensure that people of different ages, races, ethnicities, and genders are included in clinical trials.

Benefits of Participating

  • You may be compensated for your time and travel while participating
  • Insurance is not needed as the pharmaceutical company fund the research studies
  • You will have access to our medical research staff during the study
  • You may withdraw consent or decide to stop participating at any time during the study
  • Your information is kept confidential, protected, and is never shared without your permission.

Process of Participating

Usually, clinical trials compare a new product or therapy to something else to see if it works as well or better to treat or prevent a disease or condition. In a blinded study, a participant may be randomly assigned to receive the test product, or an existing, approved therapy.

In some studies, participants may be assigned to receive a placebo (a product with no therapeutic action that looks or acts like the test product). Comparison with a placebo can be the fastest and surest way to demonstrate therapeutic effectiveness of new products.

Potential participants are told before they enter a trial whether placebos are going to be used in the study and the risks and benefits of the study medication(s).

The following process generally occurs during the conduct of a clinical research study:

  1. Pre-Screening
  2. Informed Consent
  3. Screening Visit
  4. Study Visits (Treatment Visits)
  5. End of Study Visit
  6. Follow-up Safety Visit

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, you can leave a clinical trial at any time, but should always let the clinical team know first because some medications should not be stopped without the doctor’s help.

Keeping trial volunteers safe is the top priority. All clinical trials are reviewed before they start by the Food and Drug Administration and an institutional review board made up of doctors, scientists, and community members whose main purpose is to decide if the clinical trial is safe to do. People in a clinical trial are closely watched, and treatments they receive have gone through a rigorous testing process before being given to people.

A placebo is a sugar pill that does not cause harm or good. The decision about whether to use a placebo in a clinical trial is based on how serious the illness is, whether an existing treatment is available, and other considerations that ensure a high standard of ethics. In many trials, one group of participants get the new treatment while another group gets a placebo. This is done so that the new treatment can be compared with no treatment in similar people.

Clinical trials always have a set of rules (such as age, sex, what health conditions you cannot have) that must be met for someone to be in the trial. These rules are to protect volunteers and to help researchers understand if the effects they see are caused by the trial medicine. People who do not meet these rules cannot take part. The rules are different for each trial, and are listed in the informed consent document.

Trial subjects rarely have to pay any trial related costs. Sometimes volunteers are paid back for expenses they might have, such as transportation and parking.