Without medical research, there would be no new medicines or tests, improved treatments, or better ways of providing healthcare.
Research successes
Some treatments developed over the last few decades have led to improved rates of survival for major health problems. For example, a clot busting injection, streptokinase, can reduce sudden deaths after a heart attack by a quarter. The use of tamoxifen in breast cancer has led to a 20-30 per cent improvement in survival rates.
Why we need research participants
Through hundreds of exciting projects going on within our comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre we want to improve the way that diseases are diagnosed and treated. But, we can only achieve this if patients and people who are essentially fit and well and don't have specified conditions (known as healthy volunteers) are willing to take part in the medical studies taking place in our hospitals.
Organisations like ours that are involved in research, and which offer their patients the chance to take part in clinical trials, often provide the latest and best available treatment. There is evidence that for some conditions, patients on clinical trials have better long term outcomes, and may also get earlier access to new drugs.
If you are a patient at one of our hospitals, you may be asked to take part in a research study. It is entirely up to you whether or not you wish to get involved. If you decide not to participate, this won't affect your treatment in any way.
Many of our research studies also depend on the willingness of healthy volunteers to get involved too. So, you don't need to be a patient at one of our hospitals to take part in one of our studies.
Consent
To take part in any research study you will need to give informed consent, to show what is being asked of you and to confirm you agree to take part. You should never give consent if you are unclear about any aspect of the research.
The booklet, Taking part in medical research studies (PDF 1.33MB), answers many frequently asked questions about research studies.