Research Volunteers 

Medical research spans a wide spectrum of activities – the primary intention is to advance knowledge so that patients ultimately benefit.

At one end of the spectrum, research may involve discovering the mechanisms and pathways underlying clinical conditions, looking at the effects of medication or foods on metabolism, assessing the benefits of dietary and lifestyle interventions or new medical treatments. At the latter stage of research, clinical studies may be conducted as part of local or international collaborations in order to evaluate treatments or interventions that are in the final stages of product development.

While new medicines or treatments are extensively tested in laboratories, these tests can only predict how they will act. To thoroughly understand how a new medicine or intervention actually works in humans, it needs to be tested on people affected by the disease the medicine or treatment is designed to help. These human tests (clinical trials) help doctors to assess if the new medicine or treatment is more effective or safer than old medicines or treatments.

Why volunteer for clinical research?

Once the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute’s dedicated Clinical Research and Trials Unit (CRTU) is operational in 2010, the CRTU will be seeking volunteers from the Illawarra community who are willing to participate with us in advancing medical research.

As a volunteer, you may be:

• recruited from the general community taking part in investigator initiated studies concerning lifestyle interventions, nutrition, exercise or cognitive performance
• a patient identified for a particular research study because you have an illness or disease that is being investigated as part of a pharmaceutical company sponsored drug trial. Research areas of early interest to the CRTU include: smoking cessation, hypertension and diabetes.

When you volunteer, you support the following activities:

• help people who are suffering from chronic, serious, or life-threatening illnesses
• contribute to the advancement of medicine
• provide researchers with important scientific information in a safe and confidential environment
• provide data that is required by the Australian and international regulatory agencies to assess whether new medicines or treatments are safe and effective. Without this data, medicines cannot be approved for prescribing by your doctor or hospital or made available for sale at your pharmacist.

Without research volunteers, clinical research and the availability of new medicines and treatments would not be possible. By volunteering you are contributing to the IHMRI’s research efforts and providing a vital service to the community.

What are the benefits of volunteering for a clinical study?

There are many reasons people volunteer for clinical studies. Some of the possible advantages include:

• helping others, by contributing to the enhancement of medical knowledge and the development of new drugs and treatments
• personally playing a more active role in your own health
• receiving extensive and more closely supervised medical care associated with the clinical study
• obtaining the clinical study medicine or medical care at no cost, at least during the study
• gaining early access to new medicines or treatments not otherwise available.

Future information will be published on this site in 2010 detailing how you might participate with IHMRI in advancing medical research.