Any prescription or over-the-counter drug you’ve taken has gone through a clinical trial. If you’ve had surgery, the technique has likely been through a clinical trial. And if you were ever diagnosed with a health condition like heart disease or cancer, a clinical trial was part of the testing techniques and the treatments. 

Behind all these important advancements were everyday people who helped researchers find their answers. Here’s why they chose to help—and how you can, too.

What Is a Clinical Trial?

Drugs and medical devices can’t get approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) without ensuring they are safe and effective for the conditions they’re approved for. These trials are also used to see if nonmedical treatments, like exercise or food choices, improve health and quality of life. 

Researchers conduct clinical trials for many reasons, including to: 

• Better understand a disease
• Learn how to prevent a disease
• Provide earlier detection and screening options
• Pinpoint ways to diagnose an issue 
• Prove new treatments work 

“One thing that may surprise you is that not everyone who volunteers for a clinical trial has the medical problem being studied,” says Julio A. Panza, MD, FACC, FAHA, Director, Department of Cardiology, Westchester Medical Center and WMCHealth Network. “Some trials need healthy people to be the ‘control arm’ or comparison to the people in the study with the condition. It helps us prove the efficacy and safety of the treatment.” 

How a Medication Clinical Trial Works

A new medicine is usually tested in animals first. If it works well, it moves to human studies. These clinical trials have four phases. They start small and grow as researchers learn more about how people respond to the medication or treatment. 

Why Participate in a Clinical Trial?

There are many reasons people take part in a clinical trial: 

• For those who need treatment for their condition, it’s a chance to try a promising medication that may be more effective or have fewer side effects than what is already approved and available. 
• Study participants may receive additional care and monitoring from the doctors and clinical trial staff. 
• It’s a chance to help others and make sure people in the future have access to newer and better treatments.
• “It’s especially important for people with diverse backgrounds to be in clinical trials,” says Dr. Panza. “That’s because different groups of people, including those with varying backgrounds, races, genders, and ages, can respond differently to the same treatment.” 

What to Know About Being in a Clinical Trial

Many health systems and doctors, especially in an academic medical setting like WMCHealth, can enroll and treat patients in clinical trials. 

Before entering a clinical trial, participants sign an informed consent document that lays out the risks and benefits, plus the study details. This is a great time for the participant to ask questions about the study. Even if someone signs the consent form and begins the study, they can leave the study at any time.

“Depending on how the study is designed, participants sometimes get a placebo, or inactive product, instead of the product being tested in the trial. If this happens, participants won’t know which they’re getting. The idea is to compare the new product’s effectiveness without bias,” explains Dr. Panza. 

Each clinical trial is different, so ask your doctor how the study works. It may involve extra doctor visits, procedures, blood draws, or scans. If you need to travel for the study visits, there may be some extra costs. These may or may not be covered by the study. Also ask your doctor about any potential risks or side effects from the study treatments. 

“WMCHealth enrolls for clinical trials in many areas, including cardiology, neurology, surgery, and oncology,” says Dr. Panza. “By participating, you could be part of the next great advancement in treating a condition that affects millions of people. You could be a part of delivering on a promise of hope.”