following the pandemic outbreak, researchers have repetitively supported the use of well-structured trials to test new treatments for any disease. But what should a well-structured clinical trial look like? This article will highlight some key elements you should look for in the latest clinical and research trials. Well-designed clinical trials and research studies are important as they help a reputable clinical research organization like Veristat improve the patient care standards of the future. Here are factors you should look for to make sure you get accurate trial results. These include:
The number of participants studied
Considering the number of participants in clinical trials is crucial since researchers base the success of a drug on its effect on the participants. These insights are then applied to a whole population, so it’s important to ensure the results are accurate for everyone’s safety. Note that, a small sized-sample might make major differences harder to identify and might not apply to a whole population. When you study a small group with similar demographics (gender, age, ethnicity, health status, etc.), you may have a hard time telling how it’ll affect other demographics.
Trial randomization
The process of trial randomization involves randomly assigning treatment to a control group of patients without considering key underlying factors like age, disease state, medical history, or weight. If, for example, all young participants are given an experimental treatment have better results, while the older participants get the standard treatment and get worse, it can be rather difficult to verify that the experimental treatment is the cause of improvement. That’s because age might play a role. But, if your experimental treatment is randomly distributed among participants and the experimental group’s healthy improved (irrespective of age), then it will be easier to reach more accurate conclusions.
Placebo
Typically, placebos are used in instances when there’s no existing care you can use to test a new drug against. They are designed so they look like the treatment being tested. However, they don’t have any therapeutic effect. Testing new medication against a placebo helps give researchers something they can compare their results against. This helps eliminate bias in the patients’ reported outcomes.
Peer review
The peer review vetting process allows independent subject matter experts to review your research before it’s published. Normally, these experts are not involved in the trial study. This is crucial to scientific discovery as it helps improve or validate the quality of your research. In some cases, scientists choose to publish their outcomes in non-peer reviewed journals since it’s easier and faster than taking on the peer reviews process. However, this means it’s possible to have errors and the findings might not be recognized by the larger scientific community. Today, non-peer reviewed trial studies have increasingly become popular, so as you read about new study results or scientific findings, it’s important that you confirm where the results and findings have been published.
As researchers learn of new trial findings from scientists working to identify mechanisms behind disease, it’s important that you critically examine any supporting research findings before accepting the results as facts.
