Why You Should Volunteer in a Trial
Giving back in a meaningful way as an individual is a great way to help others and strengthen your community. Volunteering also comes with life-changing personal benefits not everyone knows about. Do you want to help others in the New Year? Keep reading to learn why you should consider volunteering in a clinical trial!
Volunteers and Clinical Trials
When most people look for a volunteer opportunity, they often don’t think of doing so through a clinical trial. Clinical trials rely on partnerships with healthy and patient volunteers to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of potential new treatments. When a new treatment is discovered, it must go through the four phases of a clinical trial before it can be made available to the public.
In the early phases of clinical trials, healthy volunteers help determine the delivery method of the potential new therapy, optimal dosage amounts, and more. In the middle and later phases, patients with the study’s condition will help evaluate how safe and effective the potential new therapy is as it compares to other therapies currently on the market.
Women in Clinical Trials
Despite the many advances and breakthroughs resulting from women’s health research, there is still much work yet to do. One of the most significant disparities in treating women’s health issues is information gathered from primarily male-dominated data. This is mainly because when some of the most common treatments in use today were being evaluated in clinical trials, women were banned from participating.
Even after lifting the ban, numbers still trickled in, and women remain an underrepresented population today. So why is this important? It’s important because women’s bodies work differently than men’s. Not having enough women present in a trial can create treatment outcomes that can lead to overdosing, serious side effects, and more.
Leader in Health Research
Giving back has many potential benefits. Research evidence proves it helps with mental health issues by improving symptoms of depression and anxiety. Other benefits include:
- Learning more about your condition so you can take better care of your health.
- Advancing medicine helps improve the lives of future generations.
- Potentially gaining access to new therapies not currently on the market that may have fewer side effects and be more effective than current options.
- Being eligible for incentives as a part of study participation such as travel and time reimbursements.
Wake Research is a leader in health research. Through the clinical trials we conduct and the partnerships with people like you, our mission is to advance options for all health conditions. We have several opportunities for you to get involved in. Call us at (919) 781-2514 or stop by our website TODAY