Rogers: Ask What Trial Aims To Answer, Not If It Helps You

Clinical trials can deliver therapies and devices years before they reach the general market, but physician Rhea Rogers says the decision to join should begin with a different question. "I think the first thing we have to do is not think about, 'Can this clinical trial help me?' but 'What is this clinical trial trying to answer?'", Rogers said. Rogers, a board-certified physician, said participants may gain close monitoring, specialist access, and travel reimbursement; some studies pay volunteers directly.

Trial registries list studies and whether they compensate participants. Rogers points patients to ClinicalTrials.gov, their own physicians, academic centers, and condition-specific organizations. Amy O'Rourke, an aging expert, said the National Institutes of Health maintains a list of trials and which ones pay participants. O'Rourke also noted that some trials pay for gas costs, and that some compensate participants for their time.

O'Rourke said participants should know a placebo is possible. "You might be the one getting the placebo, you might get the drug itself," O'Rourke said. She added that she has seen people leave trials feeling hopeful and feeling they are giving back to their community. O'Rourke also said clients who joined a local clinical trial group found support, with social workers offering support groups and access to community resources alongside medical specialists.

Older adults are frequently excluded from research, O'Rourke said. "I've heard older people called 'evidence free' because nobody really studies them," O'Rourke said. Gerontologist Sam Cradduck said that exclusion carries risk because bodies process drugs differently with age. "Medication metabolizes so differently in our older community than it does in our younger community, so without having them as participants, they're often walking blind," Cradduck said.

Cradduck said new medicines cannot reach patients without trials. "You can't have a new medicine come out without a clinical trial. It's not going to be approved," Cradduck said. She also addressed a common worry about trial participation. "You're not a guinea pig," she said, adding that adverse effects accompany every prescribed treatment.

Rogers said trials provide access to devices, therapies, and other tools that will not be available to everyone else for years. Cradduck said approval of new medicines requires clinical trials. O'Rourke said she has seen people leave trials feeling hopeful and feeling they are contributing to their community.