CLINICAL TRIALS

Clinical trials are biomedical research studies that advances our medical knowledge and helps us to get highest quality of patient care.

Clinical research studies involve human participants to find new ways to prevent, detect, or treat various diseases by generating data to validate the safety (to learn whether they are safe), efficacy (to learn whether the treatment works) and possible side effects of different treatments and devices, and also new medical strategies or approaches. 

The majority of clinical trials involve testing new medications designed to treat various conditions, ranging from rare genetic diseases to cancer. In the case of new medications, the trials are jointly conducted by pharmaceutical companies, which are responsible for designing the new drugs, and hospitals or health centers, which administer these medications to patients.

Clinical trials are conducted in Alberta, Canada after obtaining approval from health authorities including Health Canada (oversees the use of drugs in Canada) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (oversees the use of drugs in the U.S and regulatory authorities in other countries where the sponsor seeks approval of the treatment) and  The Heath Research Ethics Board of Alberta -HREBA (Clinical Trials Committee approve the conduct of the study) where the intervention is to be tested. These authorities or committees assess the risk-to-benefit ratio before providing the approval which does not designate the therapy as safe or effective.