What are the different types of clinical research ?

Life expectancy, health and general well-being are increasing. Improved diagnostic and therapeutic procedures play a key role in this progress. Clinical research drives these important improvements. Therefore, it aims to advance human knowledge by developing and implementing research projects. In this article you will learn about the different types of clinical research.

Human studies

Any research project that directly involves human subjects requires interaction between the investigator and the clinical research participants. Visit this site to learn more mplusmresearchnetwork.com. All experiments involving human subjects are governed by a strict legal framework. Some of these studies require healthy subjects (no known diseases), but most involve patients with diseases that meet a number of inclusion criteria.

Prospective studies

These studies are based on the collection of a set of medical data that are stored in the individual participant's records and/or in the patient's medical history between the time the participant enrolls in the study and the time the study ends. These data refer to information obtained during several hospital visits or from examinations performed specifically for the purpose of the study. Therefore, in this study there must be one or more contacts between the participant and the investigator.

Intervention studies

These studies involve deliberate contact with participants (patients or healthy volunteers) as part of the protocol.  To answer the questions posed, these studies involve one or more changes in physical function or therapeutic interventions with drugs that are not part of traditional clinical practice. 

Therefore, these studies require the active participation of participants and the acceptance of medical procedures that may not be necessary for their medical condition or provide benefits that are not formally documented. Interventional studies have the greatest impact on the advancement of medicine. 

Observational or non-interventional studies

These studies assume that the research is conducted on a record basis, that medical procedures (diagnostic tests, surgical procedures or pharmacological treatments, etc.) are routinely prescribed in accordance with the requirements of good medical practice, and that the decision to prescribe treatment is clearly separated from the decision to enroll the patient in the study.  The protocol does not require patient contact with the investigators, but through routine follow-up consultations.  Active patient participation is not required for some procedures, with the exception of "questionnaires" or "surveys" on quality of life.