Tragedy as Catalyst: How COVID-19 May Transform Clinical Research for Good

Clinical trials are studies performed for research in people who have an objective at evaluating a surgical, medical, or behavioral intervention. Clinical Trials are the primary method of researchers to determine whether a new treatment or drug, or diet is safe and effective in human beings. Clinical research requires trials conducted to collect information regarding the efficiency and safety of a new drug, device, or treatment.  These are tested on certain individuals, and this process is termed clinical trial recruitment. The main aim of patient recruitment is to raise awareness about clinical research and to encourage the enrolment of patients. Clinical trials form the major portion of clinical research.

Covid-19 and clinical trials

The pandemic COVID-19 has created havoc all over the world. It has caused us to rethink everything, including how clinical research is conducted. Clinical research institutes have completely changed their way of working and processing data and results. The best clinical research course of action has changed drastically and has resulted in new trends in the research world. Clinical trial recruitment has become a challenge due to the global pandemic as people are socially distanced from one another. However, they have stayed connected through social media platforms. The benefit of reaching patients online or digitally is that they can be reached from any part of the world. Digital platforms make it easier to reach out to people, and it also encourages active participation in clinical trials. The latest trends in clinical trial recruitments include increased use of digital advertising to find the most suited patients for a trial.

Clinical research studies are always in need of volunteers. Without these volunteers, medications and treatments cannot be approved by the concerned authorities and thus cannot reach the patients.  Apart from gaining access to a potential treatment for a particular disease, other perks include receiving care at the topmost facilities, helping science, and making a potential impact on all those living in that particular condition. These studies generally offer generous compensation for your participation.

As the best clinical research courses based on clinical trials strive to investigate if a potential treatment is both safe and effective, there is a certain level of risk associated with it.  When the recruited volunteers are chosen, there is a possibility that the treatment shall not be effective, and the volunteer can also be subjected to certain side-effects.

Every clinical trial chooses the best clinical research course of action to collect as much data as possible. Before any of these medications reach the patients, it has to undergo our clinical trial phases. The first phase is also known as the recruitment phase. This is a very crucial stage of the process. It involves the selection of participants for the testing of the new treatment or drug. These participants have to meet certain criteria based on the drug or disease being treated. It involves the enrolment of 20-100 volunteers whose condition has been studied well and monitored over a specified amount of time. Volunteers may receive information regarding these trials through newspapers, blogs, online platforms, healthcare providers, etc. This first stage mainly measures the safety of the drug or treatment by testing for any adverse or ill effects of the treatment. The criteria to be met by these volunteers can be extremely specific or generic. This is completely based on the best clinical research course of action chosen by the specialists. The following phases of any clinical trial include the elimination of unsuitable candidates for drug perfection along with FDA approval and monitoring of the drug.

The most commonly asked question by the volunteers of any clinical trial recruitment process is the protection given to them.  There are a number of measures that are taken to ensure that the participants of the trial are well protected and safe during the trial. The concerned authorities constantly review the protocols of every trial to ensure that it is done ethically and the patients' rights are protected. Apart from this, the FDA provides oversight for clinical trial testing of medical devices or drugs. Prior to human clinical trials, the FDA reviews the applications for the new treatments and medications to ensure that the studies and researches have protections in place for the volunteers. The completely informed consent forms of the patients are one of the most important pieces of the puzzle of any clinical trial that protects the volunteers.  Any changes in the mind of the volunteers enable them to withdraw from the trail immediately, ensuring their complete safety.

Conclusion

Clinical research trainings are given to every professional involved in the trial. Clinical research trainings are continuously updated based on the disease and development of technology to ensure the complete safety of the participants of the trial.

Every study's guideless or protocols have a standard set of criteria to be met. This is known as eligibility criteria which describe the characteristics that must be shared by all the volunteers of the trial. This criterion differs from one study to another. It may include age, gender, medical history, the status of current health, etc. Enrolment of participants with similar criteria ensures that the results are due to the treatment in question and not due to external factors.