The Importance of Clinical Research – Putting the Puzzle Pieces Together
By
Sheila Solomon, MS, CGC
Certified Genetic Counselor
University of Pittsburgh
Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
solomonsr@upmc.edu
Advancements in healthcare today are occurring at light-speed and are changing the way doctors treat and prevent diseases. Think about the surgeries you may have had, your child’s immunizations or even the medications you take each morning. Keeping us healthy doesn’t happen by chance. It takes years of research to find answers to health problems.
There are different types of research: Clinical research and basic medical research. Imagine an enormous jigsaw puzzle, where each puzzle piece is a cell, gene or molecule. Basic medical research directs attention to individual puzzle pieces and learns everything possible about a specific piece. The researcher may focus on the ways a cell behaves or how a molecule works. This is very important work because, just like when completing a puzzle, it is important to understand shape, color or patterns of behavior. There is another important component needed to complete the research puzzle. Clinical research collects information (often including blood or tissue samples) from as many people as possible and matches the information with the work from the basic researcher. Together the researchers help to zero in on the basic cause of the health problem or confirm a certain treatment.
Improvements in healthcare begin as questions about diseases. The questions are scientifically analyzed and thoroughly studied using patient information. Over time, if results are promising, the answers are published in medical journals. At last, helpful and healing information is given to the patient. This is clinical research. “Clinical research is done by caring physicians and health care workers who dedicate their careers to working with patients to understand exactly what problems they are facing, and what treatments have, or are likely to work.”, says David Whitcomb, MD, PhD, Professor and Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Many – but not all – research puzzles have been completed for pancreas diseases. Dr. Whitcomb’s research groups at the University of Pittsburgh collaborate with other scientists around the world to help complete the puzzle for pancreatitis and answer new questions about why pancreatitis, pain, inflammation, cancer, diabetes and other health problem occur. Plenty of puzzles remain unfinished.
This is why “it is important for each patient as well as people without the disease to join clinical studies, to take the time to carefully answer detailed questions and to provide blood or other samples for biological testing.” asserts Dr. Whitcomb. The details of exactly which symptoms they have or do not have will be analyzed by teams of scientists who are working together to bring relief and to prevent the development of terrible diseases.”
Here’s how you can help put the pieces together for pancreatitis and other diseases.
- Contact us: 1-888-PITT-DNA
- Clinical Trials.gov: http://ww.clinicaltrials.gov
- NIH Clinical Centers: http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov/participate.shtml
- Speak with your physician about your interest in participating in clinical research
