Who Can Participate?

A clinical trial, also known as a clinical research study, is a special type of clinical research in which medical devices, drugs or other therapies are investigated. Medical researchers use clinical trials to determine if new drugs or other types of treatment or interventions are both safe and effective.

All clinical research is conducted with research volunteers, also referred to as human subjects, or research participants. Participants in clinical research volunteer to take part. They may be healthy, at high risk for developing a disease, or already diagnosed with a disease or illness.

Because we know that individual response to a particular therapy varies, it is important to conduct studies with a wide range of volunteers. Age, gender, race, ethnicity, and more can play a factor in the effectiveness of a treatment — making it extremely important for medical researchers to evaluate promising options among different groups who could see benefit.

Some studies involve healthy volunteers — generally seeking information to use in comparison to individuals with a specific condition. Other studies compare standard treatments for a disease to newly-developed therapies. Sometimes these studies evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a new treatment for a condition for which no current treatment exists.

Read about volunteering for a research study

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