HHS HealthBeat (September 7, 2012)

Healthy volunteers

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

It takes more than trained specialists with deep medical knowledge to advance medical science. It also takes people who just want to help. The clinical trials that test researchers’ theories often need healthy volunteers, as well as ill people who might benefit directly from the research. At the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health – the NIH’s research hospital – patient recruitment lead Dinora Dominguez:

“Researchers need both individuals – those that are healthy and those that have the medical condition or medical diagnosis – because we learn from both of them.”

People who want to volunteer can review projects at clinicaltrials.gov, searching in ”studies” with the term “healthy.”

Volunteers always have the right to say no, of course, to part or all of a study.

Learn more at healthfinder.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: September 7, 2012