Virol.net - Medical Research Homepage
Medical research goes on every day, and it is essential in learning how to treat, prevent and identify diseases. The knowledge gained through various research studies done over the last century has vastly improved our overall health and our life expectancy. The advances made in research have been beneficial to experimental medicine, and new preventive care and medicines have been discovered. There are a few different types of medical research, and each has its own set of protocols and ethics.
Looking at medical research from a broader perspective, there are two main branches that each have sub-specialties. The first of these two branches, preclinical research, is intended to establish a product or drug's safety before it is tested on humans. The second branch, clinical research, is made up of clinical trials that are meant to observe a product's safety and efficacy in humans. Clinical research is driven by comparison; it analyzes results and compares them to the results from the administration of a placebo.
Clinical trials are further broken down by phase or type, which is done according to the duration and sample size of the research. Phase I trials have less than one hundred subjects and can last up to a year, while trials in Phase II can include hundreds of people and can last up to two years. Phase III trials can involve thousands and last a maximum of four years. If medical research exceeds these numbers and lasts longer than four years, it is called an observational study.
Other kinds of medical research are done on specific health issues. For example, preventional studies are done to prevent illnesses through the examination of lifestyle's role in the development of certain diseases, such as diabetes and cancer. When a behavior or lifestyle is deemed to be a risk factor, then an intervention study is done to look for ways to reduce the risk. In some cases, there are risk patterns that cross regional and ethnic barriers; these are identified in epidemiological studies.
Medical research takes place in laboratories all over the world, but every study is regulated by the research facility or school's country's government. For instance, in the US, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) monitors medical research procedures and guidelines. In Japan, the Ministry of Health oversees medical research, and in Europe, the European Medicines Agency oversees that country's medical research.