Why Do Patients Volunteer For Patient Recruitment Clinical Trials?

Manufacturers must prove the safety and efficacy of new drugs or medical devices before they are approved for consumption

. The safety and efficacy of drugs and clinical devices can only be tested by means of carefully controlled patient recruitment clinical trials involving hundreds of patients. If a new drug or device lives up to its expectations then the manufacturer will receive official approval to sell it to the public. All clinical trials require human participants since the items being tested are meant for human consumption. Companies therefore have to find large numbers of willing participants for each trial - many companies will concede that this is never an easy feat and which is why they hire clinical trial services for help with patient recruitment. Companies offering these services can be relied on to locate and recruit the requisite numbers of volunteers for these clinical trials.

Participants in clinical trials are usually volunteers who willingly take part in these exercises. It is imperative that all participants are adequately informed about all what an exercise involves so that they can make informed decisions about whether to participate or not. But what is it that motivates patients to volunteer in clinical trials? People accept to be used in clinical trials only because they derive certain benefits from these trials. For many people, the opportunity to receive treatment with a novel drug or device not yet available to the public is reason enough for participation. This is especially so for people with chronic or terminal illnesses which have defied all existing treatment regimens. Patients in such situations feel that they have nothing to lose from participating in the trials but everything to gain if the new drug or treatment procedure turns out to be efficacious.

Other patients volunteer for clinical trials to benefit from free medical care during the trials. As a matter of routine, volunteers in patient recruitment clinical trials undergo health checks and diagnostic tests prior to, during, and even after the trials are over. Thus, by volunteering in a clinical trial, one can enjoy free medical checkups and in some cases receive free treatment courtesy of the clinical trial sponsor as a reward for participating in the exercise. Many people also participate in clinical trials for altruistic reasons. By taking part in these trials they feel they are contributing to the improvement of medical science and that their partaking will help millions of other people around the world who will benefit from the drugs or technologies being tested.

Of course there are also volunteers who are solely motivated by the cash rewards proffered by the sponsors of the clinical trials. Companies sometimes offer cash rewards for participation over and above compensating the volunteers' out of pocket expenses such as transport costs. To pay or not to pay volunteers remains contentious with some people maintaining that participation should be entirely voluntary and others feeling that it's quite okay to offer a small cash token so as to encourage more people to volunteer in clinical trials. All in all, clinical trial services involved in patient recruitment must appeal to prospective participants by pointing out how participation in the trial will be beneficial to them and to the broader society if they hope to enroll sufficient numbers of volunteers.

by: William Johanna

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