| Who can paticipate in a clinical trial? |
All clinical trials have guidelines about who can get into the program. Guidelines are based on such factors as age, type of disease, medical history, and current medical condition. Before you join a clinical trial, you must qualify for the study. Some research studies seek volunteers with illnesses or conditions to be studied in the clinical trial, while others need healthy volunteers. Healthy volunteers participate in Phase I trials, vaccine studies, and trials on research on preventive care for children or adults. The factors that allow you to participate in a clinical trial are called inclusion criteria and the factors that keep you from participating are called exclusion criteria. It is important to note that inclusion and exclusion criteria are not used to reject people personally. Instead, the criteria are used to identify appropriate participants and keep them safe. The criteria help ensure that researchers will be able to answer the questions they plan to study. For more information on this or other clinical trials, please contact us. |