For those who haven’t participated in them in the past, there’s sometimes an impression that the only people who can take part in clinical trials are those who have the type of condition or issue that’s being studied. This couldn’t be further from the truth, however — in fact, healthy volunteers are an important part of many clinical studies and their ultimate effectiveness.
At AGA Clinical Trials, we’re always looking for healthy participants for our paid clinical trials in Miami, FL. We can’t say enough about the value that healthy volunteers provide to our studies. In this two-part blog series, we’ll go over why clinical trials need healthy volunteers, plus what to expect if you’re a healthy participant in any clinical study.
Drug and Medication Development
One of the key areas where healthy participants play a major role during clinical trials is in drug and medication development. Drug manufacturers need to test their products in humans before they’re available on the market, and clinical trials are the best way to do that. Clinical trials can help researchers determine a drug’s safety and efficacy, as well as its dosage and possible side effects.
And before drugs are tested on people who actually have a given medical condition, the medication or therapy must first be tested on healthy people. Researchers must observe how the medication is processed by a healthy body and how it affects different systems. This information is essential in order to develop a drug that’s safe and effective for people with the medical condition.
Other Forms of Medical Progress
To be clear, not all healthy volunteers for clinical trials have to take medication or drugs. There are several other formats that may be taken, whether this involves having your blood drawn, filling out questionnaires or undergoing different tests.
Healthy volunteers are also important for medical research studies that don’t involve drugs. Clinical trials in this category might include studies on new surgical techniques, ways to improve patient care or how to prevent diseases from occurring. In all of these cases, researchers need healthy participants in order to develop accurate study protocols and to be able to generalize the results to a healthy population.
Determining Eligibility
If you’re interested in becoming a participant in a paid clinical research study that requires healthy volunteers, you will have to confirm that you are eligible. Eligibility criteria will vary depending on the study, but will commonly include themes like age, gender, health history and current health status.
In other cases, certain behaviors or lifestyle choices may restrict healthy volunteer eligibility. For instance, many studies will not accept smokers, since smoking can have a negative impact on health. Alcohol use is also typically not allowed in healthy volunteer studies, as it can interfere with test results.
In part two of our series, we’ll go over what to expect during a clinical trial as a healthy volunteer. For more on this area, or to learn about any of our enrolling clinical research studies in Miami, speak to the team at AGA Clinical Trials today.
