Participants of clinical trials are the heroes that majorly aid in the development of biologics, new drugs and treatments from which the rest of the world can benefit. Each drug and medical treatment available on the market has been able to surface because of brave and willing clinical trial participants. It is because of these volunteers that countless people around the globe have been able to benefit from cures and ease of suffering. It is because of these courageous individuals that breakthrough drugs and medical treatments have hit the market. It is largely because of clinical trial participants that disease-causing death tolls in America have been majorly slashed, as much of the advancement is due to the investment in clinical research. It is because of clinical trials that diseases such as polio and measles have nearly been eradicated in the United States, as the development of preventative vaccines are due to these studies.
It is because of the immeasurable benefits that have come from clinical trials that funding has been poured in to trials so that more developments in medical research treatments, strategies and therapies could be developed. Without this funding, such breakthroughs would take years longer to implement. In fact, some would perhaps never come about at all.
Human involvement in clinical studies is crucial for medical researchers to be able to properly assess the efficacy and safety of new drugs and treatments. It is very important for the trials’ medical staff to have a large number of patients to observe in order to accurately form objective conclusions about treatments’ dangers and benefits. Without testing drugs and treatments on humans, doctors would not be able to know how the experimental care would perform on patients who need them.
The leading cause of death in the United States is atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Since the 1960s, the mortality rate for this disease has been cut nearly in half due to the findings of clinical trials. Trial studies have identified risk factors for heart disease, including obesity, smoking, high cholesterol, lack of exercise and hypertension, so that people could more vigilantly control these factors. The drugs, diagnostic tests, therapies and treatments developed by clinical trials (such as drugs that control arrhythmias, bypass surgery methods, balloon angioplasty and cardiac catheterization) have also majorly aided in the decrease of the disease’s mortality rate.
A sustained and enhanced clinical research effort is what will be behind any medical progress made in the next decades. Future research and experimentation will be based largely on what is found today in clinical trials, and what we know today is largely based on what we observed and studied in clinical trials a few decades ago. Advanced imaging technology, virtual screening techniques and more advanced tools will better enable doctors to research and understand diseases and the human body at large and even discover preventative treatments. All of these breakthroughs depend upon the participation of volunteers and ongoing funding of clinical trials.
