If you are wondering what you need in order to participate in clinical research, you are not alone!
There are many opportunities and many reasons why you may want to participate in clinical trials. However, it can be difficult finding the right clinical trial and even harder to figure out where these trials are taking place.
In this article we will breakdown where and how you can start participating in clinical research trials.
If you would like to know why you should participate in a clinical trial you can read the article here (link to article on why you should participate)
Which type of clinical trial should you participate in?
There are many types of clinical research trials. One of the biggest categories is going to be the indication. This is the disease or condition that the new medication or therapy is designed to help with. There are clinical trials targeted towards healthy people in order to determine safety. However, most trials are broken down into different disease processes. For example hypertension. If you have high blood pressure you might be eligible to participate in a clinical trial for hypertension. Or if you are diabetic there are plenty of trials that are trying to determine how to maintain better insulin control.
The main goal of clinical research trials is to determine better therapies and medications than those that are currently available in the market. That is why the best way to start looking for the best clinical study for you, would be to consider your medical history. You will want to know what conditions or disorders you have been diagnosed with and what clinical trials are currently available for those conditions.
How to sign up
Now that we are ready to sign up, the first step in enrolling into a clinical trial is to visit https://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Here you will be able to search for a clinical research trial by location, disease or condition and type of intervention.
While conducting this search, the most important fields will be the location and the disease or condition. There are many clinical trials available and you will be able to further filter the search results based on the specific trial you are searching for.
Once the search results appear you will see it broken down into different segments. The site provides:
Study overview
On this part of the page it will give you a short summary about who the study is designed for and what the purpose of the medication or therapy is. It will also tell you the official title or the name of the medication that is being trialed.
Contacts and locations
This portion of the clinical trials website will provide you with the contact information such as the name, the email, website and phone number for the study. This way you can contact the pharmaceutical company that is currently enrolling in the trial. For the location portion of this tab it will let you know what countries, states and cities are enrolling in the trial.
Participation criteria
This portion of the web page is one of the most important as it will let you know some of the eligibility criteria for the study. The information here will tell you what some of the inclusion and exclusion criteria is for the trial. Most studies have different criteria for who is able to participate and who should avoid volunteering.
For the most part the things that might exclude participants are medical history, allergies, or vital signs. There are many things that can be a part of the eligibility criteria so it is important to do your research and to contact the research site to make sure you qualify.
Once you arrive at the clinical research site you will be asked these questions and you may be asked to perform certain assessments to make sure you qualify.
Study plan
Study plan goes into more detail on how the study will be conducted. Some trials are broken down into multiple phases or portions. Each part will be different as one of the reasons trials might do this is to change the dose of medication. Others might be broken into different arms to try different combinations of treatments and medications.
This is important to understand but it will be explained to you in a lot more detail once you visit the clinical research site.
Collaborators and investigators
There might be different collaborators or organizations that are involved in the trial. This portion of the website might not be as important when doing your research. It might be interesting information for you if you are curious to know whether the study is backed by a different company or is being collaborated by an organization you might be familiar with.
Publications
Here you will find different articles or additional information that has been published by the organization. Not every trial will have information on this section and this part might not be of concern to you. However, if there are publications on this area it would be worth a read as it might help you gain a better understanding of the clinical trial.
Study record dates
This section will simply list the dates in which the trial was submitted, registered and posted onto the clinical trials website. Again, this part might not be crucial to read into but it is interesting to note when it was posted and whether it is still enrolling as some trials take longer to enroll than others.
More information
This part of the site will give you additional information relating to the study such as terms that were discussed. It will give you a list of terms that apply to the research trial as well as additional information such as if the product is FDA regulated.
Once signed up what to expect
Once you have found a clinical trial, you have read through the summary, and have determined you might qualify, the next part is to get a hold of the clinical research site that is participating. To do this you can call the number on the contacts portion of the clinical trials website. This contact information is very helpful in allowing you to connect with the staff that are conducting or preparing to conduct the study.
The clinical research site will schedule you for an appointment and upon your arrival they will provide you with much more information. They will be able to determine if you are eligible, ask you questions, perform assessments if you sign consent and most importantly you will have the opportunity to ask as many questions as you may have.
Participating in a clinical trial is completely voluntary and it is important that you sign consent before performing any trial specific activity and that you have all of your questions addressed before you participate. At any point in time you can withdraw your consent if you decide to stop participating in a clinical research study.
Hopefully this article has proven helpful to you as a brief guide into how and where you can sign up for clinical research trials. It can be confusing to get started as there is not a lot of reliable information on the topic of participating in clinical research studies.