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Pulmonary Services

What is a clinical trial?

A clinical trial is a carefully designed research study that is done with people like you who volunteer to receive investigational treatments under the close supervision of a physician, and research professionals. Many proposed treatments make theoretical sense, or appear to be effective when tested in the laboratory or in small numbers of patients. However some, when tested in large numbers of patients, might prove ineffective or have unexpected side effects. But a number of investigational medications do prove positive. Therefore, rigorous trials in large numbers of patients are necessary for a medication to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration.