Clinical Research Locators

Voluntary participation in clinical medical trials can be a means of obtaining quality medical care for individuals who do not have health insurance or other means of affording doctors’ visits and medications.  

Clinical trials are conducted to test newly developed drugs and medical devices to determine their safety and effectiveness before they are approved for general recommended use by the public.  Research subjects are the voluntary participants on whom the new medications or devices are tested.  Healthcare professionals, usually doctors, administering the research drugs or devices according to the clinical trial guidelines or protocol are known as principal investigators.   

In the United States, clinical trials must be approved by independent ethics committees known as institutional review boards (IRBs) which monitor and review the research activity to protect the safety and welfare of research subjects. These committees usually function at the local level and are empowered by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Department of Health and Human Services regulations to approve and/or require modifications of a planned trial protocol prior to approval of the research or disapprove the research. The monitory role of the IRB involves conducting regular meetings of its members and conveying appropriate and important information of a scientific, regulatory or ethical nature to the principal investigators involved in the respective clinical trial throughout the duration of the research activity.  

To find clinical trials for varying conditions and research sites in various geographic locations visit the following websites. 

• CenterWatch
  
  CenterWatch has one of the larges and most comprehensive global listings of industry-sponsored- and government-sponsored clinical trials on the Internet.
• ClinicalTrials.gov
  
  ClinicalTrials.gov provides patients, family members, and members of the public easy and free access to information on clinical studies for a wide range of diseases and conditions.