What are Clinical Trials?
Even though money should not be your main motivator, you can earn thousands of dollars by participating in clinical trials!
I have received lots of positive feedback and questions on prior articles. In this article we will go over the most asked question. How do you find clinical trials? And of course, how to find the highest paying clinical trials!
Today we are going to be covering three easy ways to find the best clinical trial but first here’s a quick overview of what clinical trials are. We are not talking about research studies where you fill out surveys for a dollar, we are talking about taking new medications or trialing new medical devices.
Clinical trials, also known as clinical research studies, are required in order to bring a new medication or device to market.
Therefore, pharmaceutical companies will pay for participants to take the medication or try the new device in order to show that it is safe and effective. And this is where you come in….
There are clinical research trials for lots of different health conditions and other trials for people who are completely healthy. Many clinical trials are checking to make sure that a new medication works, my usual example is if you have high blood pressure.
You would be a good candidate for a trial that is looking at how effective a new blood pressure medication is.
If you are completely healthy you can also participate as the first phase of clinical trials involves healthy participants. At this point they are checking that the medication is safe and these trials usually pay the best.
As I have a background in clinical research I am very passionate about the topic. There are so many clinical trials available and not a lot of people know about them. You can participate in clinical trials, earn cash and be part of a greater good by advancing science.
Through clinical trials you are helping to improve modern medicine and provide better therapies, medications and devices to people who need them.
Now that we have a general understanding of how clinical trials work and why they pay so well, let’s jump into the different ways to find them.
1. Asking Your Doctor
The first way is to ask your doctor or specialist.
First step is always going to be to check with your healthcare provider to make sure you are clear to start looking for clinical trials. Based on their medical opinion you might realize that you rather not participate in clinical trials. Perhaps due to your current health status or preexisting conditions.
However, once your doctor gives you the ok to start looking for clinical trials. The best way to get started on this search is to ask them if they know of any research studies in the area. A lot of times clinical research sites will form a good working relationship with other healthcare providers nearby. Sometimes you might even see posters in your doctor’s office, promoting clinical trials. And lots of times doctors who have a clinic might also do research on the side.
So even though you might already know that your doctor is not directly involved in clinical research chances are they can point you in the right direction.
But regardless of how you plan on finding the right research trial, always check in with your healthcare provider!
2. Google
This one might sound very obvious but googling “clinical research trials near me” or clinical trials for (insert medical condition), will give you a good amount of results for trials that are happening in your area.
There are many clinical research sites and chances are you might have one closeby that you are unaware of. Once you find a clinic that is closeby, call them and ask for the trials that they currently have. For the most part you will realize that research clinics have multiple research studies at any point in time. And if it turns out that they don’t have any clinical trials that you would qualify for, they can keep you in their database and call you once they have a trial that you might qualify for.
It is a good idea to build positive relationships with the clinical research sites in your area as they will all have different trials at different points in time. And again if they don’t have a trial that you would be a good fit for, they love growing their database of interested participants.
3. Clinicaltrials.gov
Another great resource and the most official resource for finding clinical trials is by searching on clinicaltrials.gov. All of the links mentioned on this episode will be listed below so that you can try them out for yourself.
The great thing about clinicaltrials.gov is that you can filter for specific conditions or diseases.
According to their website you can browse 481,198 research studies in all 50 states and in 223 countries. With that many clinical trials you are bound to find one that will work for you.
Once you narrow down the results for the condition you are looking for and the location, it will give you a list of the research studies available to you. Once you find one that looks interesting, you can select it to view more information.
You can see the location of where it is being offered as well as a snippet of the inclusions or basically the qualifications that they are looking for. There are also exclusions or things that would disqualify you from participating.
Again, this is a great resource as it is a free and easy way to look at the clinical trials that are available in your area.
4. Craigslist
If you have been following along you are bound to have found one if not more clinical trials that might interest you. But if you still haven’t, this fourth way is going to sound a little sketchy but it definitely works.
And that is by taking advantage of ads on Craigslist. Clinical research companies are utilizing social media a lot more recently. You might notice these ads on instagram, tik tok, reddit and other sites. However, they are also using craigslist and as not many people use it anymore you might not be aware that this a great resource to finding paid clinical trials.
All you have to do is go to craigslist.com and use the search bar to look for clinical trials. You will probably be directed to the jobs section where you are sure to find clinical research trials that are recruiting volunteers.
Sure this might sound a bit dated but there are plenty of clinical research sites who post on craigslist because it is a cheap way for them to market their clinical trials.
Give it a try and let me know in the comments if you find any trials near you from this method, because I am curious to know if it works for you.
Asking friends and family
As a bonus for making it all the way to the end of today’s episode. I recommend that you talk to your friends and family as chances are they might have participated or know someone who has done clinical trials in the past.
It might sound obvious to start within your network but if you have not done so, it doesn’t hurt to ask. Perhaps their doctor has recommended that they participate in a clinical trial in the past or they might have a family member who has participated.
Theclinresearcher.com
Another additional resource on everything clinical research is theclinresearcher.com. It is a growing resource that is meant to help you gain a better understanding on clinical trials, what they are and where to find them. Again I am very passionate about clinical research because I think it is an important part in improving healthcare and science and there is very little information on it available. That is why our goal with theclinresearcher.com is to bring you the most comprehensive resource for clinical trials.
To loop back around….
You should start by not only seeking your doctor’s medical advice but also their recommendations on different clinical research sites. You can also search for clinical research studies near you on google. Or use the official clinicaltrials.gov website to narrow down your search by disease and location of the study. Better yet you can use good old craigslist to find clinical research studies in your area. It also doesn’t hurt to ask friends and family to see if they might know of any clinical research sites or studies they might recommend.
And saving the best for last. If you want to learn more about how clinical trials work, where to find the best clinical trials and how to participate… make sure you subscribe, like this video and comment down below. Plus check us out at theclinresearcher.com for the best growing resource on clinical trials.
Thank you for reading, I hope this was a helpful article on how to find the highest paying clinical trials!