Clinical Trials and Research Studies

By Stacey Samuels-Cole, AuD

Clinical trials and research studies are extremely valuable to all of us in that they bring about knowledge, better medical technology and treatment options. To perform clinical trials and studies, researchers often need patients to volunteer for the research. For many reasons including safety, accuracy of data, and the protection of patients who enroll in them, clinical trials and research studies are closely regulated. In this day and age, it is important to protect your personal information and do your own research before offering to participate in a clinical trial or research study.

If you are considering participating in a clinical trial or study, here are some points of information that you should have and understand

Who are the researchers?

What are the qualifications of the researchers to be conducting the trial or study?

What is going to be done with the information gathered and/or the data from the trial results?

Who is funding the trial or study?

We encourage you to always do your due diligence and find out as much information you can about any clinical trial or research study. Always treat references to clinical trials/studies with a big pinch of salt because sometimes there is a bad apple simply trying to blind you with science or worst case, deliberately mislead you.