What is Clinical Research?

Clinical, or patient-oriented, research is an area of science in which researchers seek to learn more about all types of health conditions and discover ways to prevent, diagnose and treat disease or relieve symptoms. Diagnostic tools, medical devices, drugs and other treatments are studied to determine safety and effectiveness.

Clinical research includes all aspects of research from the very beginning of the development of a new treatment or means of delivery from the bench to the bedside, or from the laboratory to an individual patient or general community usage.

Clinical research studies look at:

• Prevention: Ways to stop disease from occurring
• Screening: Ways to detect certain diseases or health conditions
• Diagnostics: Better tests or procedures to diagnose a disease or condition
• Treatment: New therapies, combinations of drugs, new approaches to surgeries, or the use of integrative medicine
• Genetics: Looking at inherited characteristics (may be independent, or part of other types of research)
• Quality of life: Ways to improve people's comfort and manage symptoms of chronic illness or side effects of treatment
• Medical records: Reviewing information from large groups of people to better understand, detect, control and treat various health conditions

All clinical research eventually involves people who volunteer to participate in the studies. These studies are called clinical research studies.

Read about Clinical Research at Mayo Clinic

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