Clinical Research

Clinical Research (pronounced: klin-i-kal ri-surch) is a branch of healthcare science that determines the safety and effectiveness of medications, devices, diagnostic products and treatment regimens intended for human use. These may be used for prevention, treatment, diagnosis or for relieving symptoms of a disease.

Etymology

The term 'Clinical' is derived from the Greek word 'klinikos', which means 'bed'. This refers to the practice of caring for patients. 'Research' comes from the Old French 'recercher' which means 'to seek out or search closely'.

Related Terms

Clinical Trial: A type of Clinical Research that follows a pre-defined plan or protocol. The plan is carefully designed to safeguard the health of the participants as well as answer specific research questions.

Placebo: A substance that has no therapeutic effect, used as a control in testing new drugs.

Double-Blind Study: A type of study in which neither the participants nor the experimenters know who is receiving a particular treatment. This method is used to prevent bias in research results.

Informed Consent: A process in which a subject voluntarily confirms his or her willingness to participate in a particular trial, after having been informed of all aspects of the trial that are relevant to the subject's decision to participate.

Randomization: A method based on chance alone by which study participants are assigned to a treatment group. Randomization minimizes the differences among groups by equally distributing people with particular characteristics among all the trial arms.

Protocol: A document that describes the objective(s), design, methodology, statistical considerations, and organization of a trial.

Investigator: A person responsible for the conduct of the clinical trial at a trial site.

Sponsor: An individual, company, institution, or organization which takes responsibility for the initiation, management, and/or financing of a clinical trial.

Ethics Committee: An independent body constituted of medical, scientific, and non-scientific members, whose responsibility is to ensure the protection of the rights, safety and well-being of human subjects involved in a trial.

Clinical Research