For Patients

SUNY Downstate Clinical Trial Office provides a wide spectrum of research opportunities for the promotion of innovative and quality healthcare within the Brooklyn community. These services include numerous clinical trials that explore new medications, treatments and therapeutic devices that may help our patients dealing with a wide variety of diseases.

What Is a Clinical Trial?

A clinical trial is a thorough and carefully controlled evaluation of a new medical test or treatment.

A clinical trial is a health-related research study in human beings that follows a pre-defined protocol. Interventional studies aim to answer specific questions about new therapies or new ways of using known treatments, while observational studies are those in which patients are observed and their outcomes are measured by the investigators. Carefully conducted clinical trials are the safest and most efficient way to identify treatments that work in people.

Before a clinical trial begins, the treatment must show that it has potential benefit. It also must meet rigorous government standards and scientific requirements for safety and have acceptable side effects before the study can be done on humans.

Ultimately, the only way to determine the true benefit and safety of a treatment is to test it on people with the disease or condition for which the treatment was developed. Clinical trials are one of the steps in determining how effective a drug or treatment is in improving the outcome a disease or medical condition.

Examples of What a Clinical Trial May Investigate:

• New treatments (drug or devices)
• New ways to use existing treatments
• New screening and diagnostic techniques
• Healthy participants only
• Participants with specific illnesses/conditions

Why Do We Have Clinical Trials?

Due to improvements in medical treatments, many more patients are surviving serious illnesses that they might not have years ago. These improvements were accomplished through research, both in the laboratory and in the clinical setting. However, there are still many questions to be answered about treatments for patients and the care they receive. Finding answers to these questions is why research is an essential part of SUNY Downstate.

Types of Clinical Trials

There are many different types of clinical trials and many ways patients and their families can participate. A clinical trial can:

• Compare two medications or treatments to learn which works better for patients
• Examine how well a medication works and what side effects may occur
• Observe the general condition of the patient to learn about a specific disease process or group of symptoms, and how they affect patients
• Test new medical devices

Clinical Trials Open to Enrollment

Please review the following disciplines for available clinical trials. If interested in a trial, contact information is provided.