A guide to clinical trials with children and young people
What are clinical trials?
The National Institutes of Health (2023) defines clinical trials as:
A research study in which one or more human subjects are prospectively assigned to one or more interventions (which may include placebo or other control) to evaluate the effects of those interventions on health-related biomedical or behavioural outcomes.
Clinical trials are part of broader clinical research, which includes all research that assesses new treatments, therapies or strategies in humans (National Institutes of Health, 2023). Depending on the trial and clinical area, children and young people might have their trial as part of their inpatient care, may attend a specific research facility or may participate on an outpatient basis. Therefore, any member of the public whom a nurse or healthcare professional comes into contact with may be participating in a clinical trial.
How are medications developed?
Medication development begins with specific biological or molecular agents,
To view the rest of this content login below; or read sample articles.
