Research and Evidence-Based Medicine
Health and medical research can help us understand why and how often certain diseases, conditions or symptoms may occur. Research can also show us the best ways of treating or managing these illnesses and symptoms. Doctors can draw upon research findings to help decide the best course of action. When they do this and combine it with their own expertise and patient preferences, this approach is called evidence-based medicine.
Types of studies
There are a number of different types of medical research. Descriptive and observational studies often look at what happens to groups of people who share something in common. For example, we may be interested in knowing how many people smoke. Or we may want to know if skin cancers have increased in the last twenty years. Surveys such as the census collection, are one way of answering these questions. Experimental or intervention studies look at what happens when we deliberately change a particular treatment. These are commonly called clinical trials or randomised controlled clinical trials.
Participating in trials
As a patient you may be invited to take part in these studies by your doctor. You may also see some clinical trials being advertised in the paper. If you are interested in joining a clinical trial there will be a Participant Information Sheet which you should read very carefully. You should also check it has been approved by a research and ethics committee. For more information on How do clinical trials work? Should I join one? go to the ABC Health and Wellbeing's document Consumer Guide: Clinical trials.
Consumer involvement in research
Consumers can be directly involved in health and medical research as participants in trials and research studies. They may also be involved as consumer representatives on research projects or as members of Research Management Boards or Research Grants panels. There are also specific research and consumer groups such as the Consumers Health Forum or the Cochrane Consumer Network.
As the end users of health and medical research, consumers have an important role to play. They can contribute to developing research directions so that the findings can make a difference. In 2004, the National Health and Medical Reseaerch Council and Consumer Health Forum released a Model Framework for Consumer and Community Participation in Health and Medical Research. This framework provides guidance on how to support consumer involvement in the research cycle. Involvement spans from determining what to research through to how the research is communicated and applied within the health system.
Finding out more
Related CareSearch pages
This page was created on 30 April 2008 and is due for review in April 2010
Last updated 26 May 2008