Terms such as these are typically used interchangeably in
informed consent forms and by researchers describing trials to
potential participants and their parents, on the assumption that
they mean the same thing. However, parents interpret the terms
differently, suggesting that standard descriptions used in
informed consent include "information that potentially biases
how a parent receives the invitation to participate," the
researchers conclude. For the study, 94 parents who had taken a
child to the emergency department at the Children's Hospital of
Pittsburgh answered six questions that assessed their
willingness to enroll their child in a study and their
perception of the following protocol descriptions: research
study, research project, research experiment, medical
experiment, and medical study. Only 18 percent of the parents
thought these terms were equivalent. Of the parents who did not
think the terms meant the same thing, most would allow their
child to participate in a "research study" but not in a "r