5 Reasons to Enroll Yourself in Clinical Trials

Finding newer medicines and medical devices requires constant effort from scientists to find a better cure for patients. Clinical trials are field tests conducted on volunteers and are the final steps for a given scientific product development before bringing it to the rest of the world. However, recent data suggests the participation of the Black population in clinical trials has been extremely low. Due to this gap, the Black population has not seen as much benefit as they should from clinical trials. Here, we highlight five key benefits for the Black population to participate in a clinical trial:

1. Early access to new medicines.

Clinical trials offer enormous benefits for patients with the availability of a new medicine or a medical product. Clinical trials offer a ray of hope for diseases with limited treatment options since they test new medicines that were not available before.

For example, two drugs Sotorasib and Adgarasib are cancer medicines and are considered a huge breakthrough after clinical trials for treating patients suffering from lung, pancreatic and colorectal cancers.

Conventional medicines in the past were not of much help to those patients. In many cases, the drugs being tested in clinical trials have helped increase the lives of patients suffering from terminal illnesses. By enrolling in a clinical trial, you get early access to those new medicines and get benefits in terms of a complete cure or increasing your lifespan.

2. A noble cause of helping future patients.

Participation in a clinical trial is totally voluntary. Doctors look into many aspects of a patient like benefits and side effects alike in the course of a treatment with a clinical trial medicine. All these points are extremely useful for scientists to further improve upon the drug. Therefore, it helps you as well as future patients suffering from similar kinds of illness.

Also, in many cases, the first stage of a clinical trial is to test them on a healthy individual. You should participate in them and in turn, help the new medicines or products move closer to being accessible to the patients down the road.

3. Medicines work differently for different races and the Black population is heavily under-represented.

Diseases do not strike the Black population in the same way as they do to the white population. In many cases, the Black population is affected more by particular diseases in comparison to the white population.

Due to the lack of active participation by the Black population at the early stages of the development of medicines, they have inadvertently focused on the white population.

Clinical trials are a great way to assess the effects of the medicine on the Black population. More participation means a more thorough study of the medicine and in turn would result in better drugs for the Black population.

4. Option to switch to another trial.

Since clinical trials are voluntary, you have the option of withdrawing at any time if the treatment you are receiving is not giving you the desired health benefit.

There are many trials rolled out for one disease and many times, they overlap. Please consult your doctor to recommend another clinical trial(s). Even a subtle change in a medicine made by scientists can lead to miraculous breakthroughs.

5. Increased medical attention.

Clinical trials are conducted at large medical centers with many expert professionals being around. Also, the person participating in the trial is under the constant supervision of a team of highly trained medical doctors and staff.

Every minute details are recorded and taken care of within no time. By enrolling yourself in a clinical trial, you are benefited by getting better care of your condition compared to the routine treatment regimen.

Although there is a risk of side effects associated with a new medicine or a medical product, the highly qualified medical team present around you during a clinical trial is there to take care of those side effects immediately.

Also, the medical community is in earnest need of data to improve upon the beneficial effects of medicine on the Black population. Remember, you can back out anytime. Since the Black population is very much under-represented in clinical trials, it would be prudent for you to participate in those trials for the benefit of your community.