Participating in Medical Research

The National Institutes of Health recently released a new Web site about participating in medical research. The site provides information about how participation in medical research affects the family, the importance of medical research, your rights during the process, and how to get started in a study.

My son has participated in several medical research studies which have ultimately provided great insight into his condition. Some studies may not provide you with a great deal of immediate information, but they do contribute to long-term understanding of the issues our children face. They can also spur other interest in research.

Weighing the pros and cons of participating in medical research is very important. There are times when my family has passed on research that would take too much time and would not produce results that were immediately helpful to us simply because our lives are already so busy and complicated.

Let us know your experiences on participating in research. Contribute a comment to this post.