A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine 
National Institutes of Health
Understanding Medical Research
It seems to happen almost every day - you hear about a new result of medical research on television or read about it in the paper. Sometimes the results of one study seem to disagree with the results of another study.
It's important to be critical when reading or listening to reports of new medical findings. Some questions that can help you evaluate health information include:
- Was the study in animals or people?
- Does the study include people like you?
- Was it a randomized controlled clinical trial?
- Where was the research done?
- If a new treatment was being tested, were there side effects?
- Who paid for the research?
- Who is reporting the results?
NIH: National Institutes of Health
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Start Here
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Frequently Asked Questions about Clinical Research(National Human Genome Research Institute)
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Understanding Risk: What Do Those Headlines Really Mean?(National Institutes of Health)
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Frequently Asked Questions about Clinical Research
The top row in the table of contents box contains the following groups:
Basics
,
Learn More
, and
Multimedia & Cool Tools
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For group Basics
For group Learn More
For group Multimedia & Cool Tools
The bottom row in the table of contents box contains the following groups:
Research
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Reference Shelf
, and
For You
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For group Research
For group Reference Shelf
For group For You
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Overviews
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Clinical Research and Clinical Trials(National Institute of Child Health and Human Development)
- Increasing Knowledge -- How to Read a Research Paper(Lewy Body Dementia Association)
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Clinical Research and Clinical Trials
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Related Issues
- Clinical Trials and Institutional Review Boards(Food and Drug Administration)
- JAMA Patient Page: Evidence-Based Medicine(American Medical Association) - PDF
- JAMA Patient Page: Medical Journals(American Medical Association) - PDF
- JAMA Patient Page: Supporting Medical Research(American Medical Association) - PDF
- Making Sense of Medical News(Nemours Foundation)
- Nanomedicine(National Human Genome Research Institute)
- Placebo Effect(American Academy of Neurology) - PDF
- When the Research Doctor Says "More Study Needed"(InteliHealth, Harvard Medical School)
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Tutorials
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Understanding Medical Words: A Tutorial from the National Library of Medicine(National Library of Medicine)
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Understanding Medical Words: A Tutorial from the National Library of Medicine
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Research
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Model Organisms Fact Sheet: Using Model Organisms to Study Health and Disease(National Institute of General Medical Sciences)
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Placebo Response Occurs Outside of Conscious Awareness(National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine)
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Model Organisms Fact Sheet: Using Model Organisms to Study Health and Disease
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Dictionaries/Glossaries
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Glossary of Clinical Trials Terms(National Institutes of Health)
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Some Common Abbreviations(National Library of Medicine)
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Word Parts and What They Mean(National Library of Medicine)
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Glossary of Clinical Trials Terms
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Organizations
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Newsletters/Print Publications
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Findings(National Institute of General Medical Sciences)
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Findings
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MedlinePlus Magazine
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Teenagers
- Figuring Out Health News(Nemours Foundation)
- Also available in Spanish
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