Clinical Research Clarification

[realitysickness]

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Hi all,

I apologize if this question has already been asked before... but I was wondering if I could get a clear definition of clinical research?

I was under the impression that research involving patients and clinicians typically at clinics or hospitals would be considered clinical. In other words, clinical research is medical research. However, I read somewhere that other types of human-subjects research would also qualify as clinical research:

"Clinical research" is an umbrella term that encompasses pretty much everything that doesn't involve working in an actual lab.

I am a research coordinator at my school where I not only administered long surveys to student participants, but I also collected human specimen from them (saliva and hair samples), which will be later analyzed for inflammatory biomarkers. Would this be considered clinical research?

Thank you!

 

[efle]

I don't think something like working as assistant to a prof and giving surveys/taking samples for biomarkers would count as clinical in the sense that "clinical" is used when discussing premed/admissions. If you were working with perfectly healthy students rather than patients, it can certainly go down as "Research/Lab" on AMCAS but I would plan to get some significant clinical exposure in the first way you describe, involving patients and typically at clinics or hospitals.

 

[realitysickness]

I don't think something like working as assistant to a prof and giving surveys/taking samples for biomarkers would count as clinical in the sense that "clinical" is used when discussing premed/admissions. If you were working with perfectly healthy students rather than patients, it can certainly go down as "Research/Lab" on AMCAS but I would plan to get some significant clinical exposure in the first way you describe, involving patients and typically at clinics or hospitals.

Thank you for the reply. Yeah, I am working with healthy students so I will consider it strictly research/lab rather than clinical research.