Human guinea pigs?

At this time, there are 40,000 clinical trials in the U.S. Twenty million Americans are recruited annually for clinical trials by universities, medical centers and drug companies. Some people suffer from cancer or other life-threatening illnesses. However, there is competition for clinical trial participants who aren't ill. As Melissa Medalie reports, it's an easy, but risky way to make money. Source: CenterWatch.com 

More information on clinical trials: 

Clinical trials are biomedical or health-related research studies in human beings that follow a pre-defined protocol, according to clinicaltrials.gov. Two types of clinical trials exist: interventional and observational. In an interventional study, a medical expert worker assign treatments to the participants and measures their outcome. In an observational study, participants are simply observed and medical experts measure their outcome. Clinical trials involve doctors, nurses and social workers. In the beginning of the trial, they check the patient's health. Participants are given specific instructions and are monitored carefully during the trial. They kept in touch even after the trial is completed. 

Participants: 

Before joining a clinical trial, a participant must qualify. All clinical trials have guidelines and specific criteria to meet in order to participate. It's important to test drugs and medical products on people they are meant to help. General criteria in clinical trials typically include age, gender, the type and stage of a disease, previous

treatment history and other medical conditions. Sometimes healthy participants are needed, while at other times patients with particular illnesses are needed. 

Informed consent is imperative for all participants of clinical trials. This is the process where doctors inform the patients of what they need to know before and during the trial. Patients are educated on the purpose, duration, required procedures and key contacts of the trial. 

Benefits 

•·        Playing an active role in your personal health care.

•·        Gaining access to new treatments before they are available to the public.

•·        Obtaining expert medical care during the trial at leading health care facilities.

•·        Helping society by contributing to medical research. 

Risks 

•·        Unpleasant, serious or even life-threatening side effects to experimental treatment.

•·        The treatment may not be effective for the participant.

•·        A longer time commitment due to survey and observation.

Source: clinicaltrials.gov 

For more information, please contact Alliance for Human Research Protection, http://www.ahrp.org.

If this story or any Ivanhoe story has improved your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Melissa Medalie at mmedalie@ivanhoe.com. 

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