8 Reasons You Should Take Part In A Clinical Trial

We have all seen shocking headlines about how stretched the NHS budget is, and how likely it is to be stretched further as the UK population ages. Clinical research gives us the opportunity to make the medicines that are paid for by the NHS, and the healthcare procedures we use, more efficient. If we can learn how to make the NHS more efficient, the budget will go much further; magic!

For example, there are lots of different treatments available for diabetes - a growing problem in our society. Which one of these treatments works best though? Trials can answer that question for us. This doesn't mean we'd stop giving out every other treatment though; each patient is different and certain drugs may work better for some people than others. 

What we'd be able to do as a result of a trial like this, is find out which types of people are more likely to benefit from each treatment. Then we would be able to match people up with treatments that are more likely to work more quickly. By preventing the use of trial and error, patients would benefit as their disease would be under control more quickly, and we'd be cutting out waste to free up funds for areas of the health service - everyone's a winner.