Participate in Clinical Research

It’s your involvement that helps researchers to ultimately uncover better ways to treat, prevent, diagnose and understand human disease.

Why participate in research?

Clinical trials are part of clinical research and at the heart of all medical advances. Clinical trials look at new ways to prevent, detect, or treat disease.

Treatments might be new drugs or new combinations of drugs, new surgical procedures or devices, or new ways to use existing treatments.

The goal of clinical trials is to determine if a new test or treatment works and is safe.

Learn more
woman in wheelchair and caregiver

Find and join a clinical trial

Find Clinical Trials
NIH conducts clinical research trials for many diseases and conditions. Find clinical trials here.
Patient Registries
A registry is a collection of information about individuals usually focused on a specific condition. Find patient registries here.
Healthy Volunteers
Healthy volunteers provide crucial comparison data. Learn about being a healthy participant here.

What to expect in clinical research

Most clinical trials follow similar steps before, during, and after you sign up.
The Basics
Answers to common questions about taking part in a clinical trial are here.
Children and Clinical Research
The way to get the best treatments for children is through research designed specifically for them.
Volunteer Payments
Some NIH studies compensate for participation.
Volunteer Stories
Learn what it's like to volunteer for a trial from other volunteers.

Safety and protections

Safety
NIH promotes the safe and ethical conduct of human subjects research.
Ethics in Clinical Research
The purpose of ethical guidelines is both to protect patient volunteers and to preserve the integrity of the science.