Understanding Clinical Trials at University of Colorado Hospital

What Are They? Clinical trials are medical research studies conducted to evaluate a new option for treatment, prevention or screening.

• Before becoming the standard of care for a specific disease, many of today’s best clinical practices began as effective clinical research studies.
• Clinical studies are designed to test a new treatment within a small group, and then use the knowledge gained, to achieve a breakthrough that will help many people.
• Before any new treatment is tested in patients, investigators conduct studies in research labs to determine safe parameters that will increase the likelihood of success in a patient trial.

Who Conducts Them? At University of Colorado Hospital and University of Colorado Cancer Center, clinical trials are conducted by individual departments.

• Our physicians are the scientists who lead the latest research and often apply new discoveries to their own patient care.
• As practicing physicians, their informed input on a clinical trial leads to more efficient, practical research designed with patients in mind.