FAQs

Before you join a clinical trial, read everything you can about the condition and treatment. If interested, you can discuss it with your usual healthcare provider or reach out directly to the clinical study team. Then bring whatever remaining questions you have to the study team when you meet them for your screening. Important considerations include benefits and risks, what you will have to do during the trial, and for how long.

There are a wide variety of professionals involved with any study, all of whom are vital to ensuring safety and success. The principal investigator – or PI – leads the trial and directs the team of doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers, while the study coordinator manages day-to-day activities. (The study coordinator is the main contact for participants.) Importantly, an independent ethics committee (or Institutional Review Board – IRB) monitors the study to ensure participant protection rules are closely followed, and an independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) periodically reviews data to ensure participant safety and sometimes efficacy.

Participants are always welcome to visit their usual healthcare providers during a trial, and sometimes it is important for them to collaborate with the study team to ensure success.

Participants will continue ongoing care through their primary healthcare provider, however the experimental intervention from the trial may not be available after it ends. Each study is different.

After your participation ends, the study may continue for months or years. Usually, your specific results will not be shared with you until the trial ends and sometimes they will never be shared. Once final results from all participants are compiled and analyzed, they are often published publicly. Check with your study team to learn more.