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Medical research is crucial for identifying, preventing, and treating diseases. There are two main types of medical research: preclinical and clinical. Clinical trials are divided into phases based on sample size and duration. Other types of research include prevention, intervention, and epidemiological studies. Research is regulated by local governments, such as the FDA in the US.
Medical research is vital to learning how to identify, prevent and treat various diseases. In fact, the insights gained from biomedical research studies conducted over the past 100+ years have greatly improved human health and life expectancy. Furthermore, advances in research methodologies have broadened the field of experimental medicine itself, leading to the discovery of new drugs and preventive measures. However, there are different types of medical research and each is represented by a specific set of ethical standards and protocols.
From a broader perspective, there are two main types of medical research that serve as umbrella stages for more specific types of research. The first stage, known as preclinical research, aims to create a summary of the safety of a health product or drug before it is tested in humans. The next stage is clinical research, which consists of clinical trials to look at a product or medicine’s overall safety in humans, as well as efficacy. Additionally, clinical medical research is largely comparison-based and analysis-driven of product or drug-initiated outcomes versus a placebo.
Clinical trials can also be divided by type, or phase, which is defined by the size of the sampling and the duration of the medical research. For example, Phase I clinical trials typically involve fewer than 100 human subjects and last up to 12 months, while Phase II clinical trials can include several hundred subjects and last up to 24 months. Finally, phase III clinical trials can involve hundreds or even thousands of people and last up to four years. Medical research that exceeds these numbers of subjects and study periods is referred to as observational studies. A prime example of the latter is the Framingham Heart Study, which has tracked more than 5,000 men and women since 1948.
Other types of medical research address more specific health-related issues. For example, prevention studies try to prevent disease by examining the role of lifestyle in the risk of developing certain diseases, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. When a lifestyle or behavior is determined to be a contributing risk factor, intervention studies are often initiated to look for ways more positive habits can help reduce this risk. Sometimes, risk patterns emerge across different ethnic groups or regional populations, which are identified by epidemiological studies.
Medical research studies take place all over the world, of course, but are regulated by the local government of the research facility or university. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration oversees research guidelines and procedures. In Japan, the regulatory authority is the Ministry of Health. In much of Europe, medical research is regulated by the European Medicines Agency.
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