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Department of Orthopaedics

 

 

Department of Orthopaedics

 

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Clinical Trials

Participation in clinical trials is your gift to the future. 

Why participate in Clinical Trials

Clinical trials are part of clinical research and at the heart of all medical advances. Clinical trials look at new ways to prevent, detect, or treat disease.

Treatments might be new drugs or new combinations of drugs, new surgical procedures or devices, or new ways to use existing treatments.

The goal of clinical trials is to determine if a new test or treatment works and is safe. Clinical trials can also look at other aspects of care, such as improving the quality of life for people with chronic illnesses.

People participate in clinical trials for a variety of reasons. Healthy volunteers say they participate to help others and to contribute to moving science forward. Participants with an illness or disease also participate to help others, but also to possibly receive the newest treatment and to have the additional care and attention from the clinical trial staff.

Clinical trials offer hope for many people and an opportunity to help researchers find better treatments for others in the future.

Who can participate in Clinical Trials

Every clinical trial has specific requirements for who can or cannot participate.

To participate in a clinical trial, participants must meet certain standards, called “inclusion criteria.” There are also factors that can exclude some people from participating, called “exclusion criteria.” Inclusion and exclusion criteria are often related to:

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Type and stage of a disease
  • Previous or current medications
  • Existing medical conditions
  • Recent participation in a clinical trial

Keep in mind that some clinical trials are looking for participants who have the medical condition being studied, while other clinical trials are looking for healthy study participants.

In order to become a clinical trial participant, you must qualify by satisfying both the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Inclusion and exclusion criteria are used to protect your safety during a clinical trial.