What types of clinical research studies are there?
Clinical research involves studies that follow research participants over time without changing their treatment, and these are called observational studies. Other types of studies make some change in individuals’ lives, for example, asking them to take an experimental medication or follow certain procedures, and these studies are called interventional studies. Interventional studies involving experimental medication are frequently called clinical trials. This name can be confusing at times because the word “trials” suggest that the experimental medication is something that the patient is trying, but this is just a name that is used for interventional clinical research studies involving experimental medications.
