Who Can Participate in a Clinical Trial?
The clinical trial protocol for each study specifically explains who can and cannot participate in a clinical trial. There are specific conditions or criteria that are part of the protocol that a person must meet in order to be considered eligible for participation. There are two types of criteria involved in determining whether a person is eligible to participate in a trial. Inclusion criteria are conditions or factors about person which must be present or true in order to be eligible for the trial. Exclusion criteria are factors or conditions which if present or true disqualify you for participation. Inclusion and exclusion criteria might pertain to factors such as your age, gender, disease or illness status, or previous treatments you may have received. Inclusion and exclusion criteria are designed to help protect the safety of those participating and to help insure that the research question being studied is able to be answered as efficiently as possible.
All clinical trials have guidelines about who can get into the program. Guidelines are based on such factors as age, type of disease, medical history, and current medical condition. Before you join a clinical trial, you must qualify for the study. Some research studies seek volunteers with illnesses or conditions to be studied in the clinical trial, while others need healthy volunteers. Healthy volunteers participate in Phase I trials, vaccine studies, and trials on research on preventive care for children or adults.
All clinical trials have guidelines about who can participate. These guidelines, which differ from trial to trial, are based on factors like age, gender, the type and stage of a disease, and other medical conditions. The factors that allow someone to participate in a clinical trial are called “inclusion criteria”. The factors that keep someone from participating are called “exclusion criteria”. Using inclusion/exclusion criteria is an important part of medical research that helps to produce reliable results and protect the safety of participants. If you think you may qualify to participate in a trial, call the Center for Skin Research at 713.985.0210. We will conduct a brief telephone screen and determine whether a particular clinical trial is right for you. If you pass the telephone screening, then we will schedule an in-office appointment with our doctors and research staff to see if you meet the inclusion criteria and to explain the particular requirements of the study. We will also
All clinical trials have guidelines about who can participate. The factors that allow someone to participate are called inclusion criteria. Those factors that exclude someone from a study are called exclusion criteria. These criteria are based on things like age, type and severity of disease, previous treatment and other significant medical history. Inclusion/exclusion criteria are used to identify appropriate study participants and keep them safe. The criteria ensure that all people in the study are similar, and can therefore be studied as a group. For your safety, the study team will not enroll you in a trial if you do not meet the criteria. If this happens, we will help you identify other options.
