Clinical Trials; Where the Rubber Meets the Road

This post is by request from a long time reader: Dear Dr. Dino: Would you consider writing a blog entry on medical trials? Clearly medicine wouldn’t make much progress without them, but to put it in patient vernacular, they seem very scary…[Details about a specific medical condition and a chance to participate in a clinical trial that]…[I]nvolves a cutting-edge technology and drug which might at some future date be shown to cause serious, unanticipated health problems.  I am at a loss trying to balance the benefits with the hazards… …[W]ould you be willing to write a column that details an organized way of thinking about medical trials, and some of the questions that patients should ask? Obviously clinical trials are important. Few people like the idea of being “guinea pigs” or “experimented on.” Fewer still are altruistic enough to participate with an endeavor explicitly for the benefit of others (for “science”) when there is none that will accrue to them (at least when clearly so stated. The vast majority of late stage cancer treatments fall into this category, and too often patients and families are allowed to believe it could be a “miracle” for them when it really isn’t. But I digress…) Participation in clinical trials requires a much more detailed Informed Consent form than most routine medical procedures. These consist of pages upon pages of detailed descriptions of the proposed inter...
Source: Musings of a Dinosaur - Category: Primary Care Authors: Tags: Medical Source Type: blogs