Science Fair Project Encyclopedia In medicine, a clinical trial
(synonyms: clinical studies, research protocols, medical
research) is a research study. Types of clinical trial The most
commonly performed clinical trials evaluate new drugs or medical
therapies to patients in strictly scientifically controlled
settings. The purpose of such trials is to determine whether one
or more treatment options are safe, effective, and better than
current standard care. They are designed to be ethical, they
must involve the full and informed consent of participating
human subjects and they are closely supervised by the
appropriate authorities. They usually must be approved by an
ethics committee before permission is granted to run the trial.
The most statistically significant, and therefore the trial that
gives the best form of medical evidence, is the randomized
controlled trial. Other forms of clinical trials such as the
cohort study and the case-controlled trial are still useful but
provide less compelling evidence than