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What Are The Fundamentals Of Good Clinical Research?

By Staff Reporter | Update Date: May 05, 2019 10:43 PM EDT

Excellent clinical research is needed more so now than ever before, yet countless medical students and aspiring professionals are finding themselves stuck when it comes to brainstorming new ideas and executing thorough research plans that produce useful results. Rather than sitting around and wallowing in failure, it's important that you stay moving and keep learning about what separates the good clinical research from the bad data that's totally ignored.

What are the fundamentals of good clinical research, anyway, and what do the most successful scientists do on a regular basis? Here's how to make sure your clinical research fits the bill.

Don't think medical training is enough

There are reasons to believe that existing systems of medical education don't go far enough when it comes to teaching students about conducting proper clinical research. As a matter of fact, current medical education is often so outdated and inefficient at outfitting med students with the skills and insights they need to succeed that it's indisputable that it's time for reform across the board. Schools, hospitals, and other major institutions in the healthcare system need to be making themselves more flexible in preparation for the healthcare demands of the 21st century.

More and more, we should be focusing on teaching the fundamentals of good clinical research to young students who will be the future pioneers of medical science. Understanding what makes for good clinical research begins by analyzing existing guides and understanding how important it is to follow guidelines. Good clinical practice guidelines are an instrumental part of producing research and results that are actually useful, so don't think that you can skirt the rules in an effort to make your work stand out. As a matter of fact, straying from clinical regulations is one of the most frequent ways that aspiring researchers stymie their own efforts and produce lackluster or inadmissible research.

The fundamentals of good clinical research begin with a strong ethical foundation. You can't let morals escape you in the midst of research, however useful that may seem when your deadline is rapidly approaching and you're struggling to finalize your results. Sacrificing ethics is the first step in a long road towards clinical research failure, so don't shirking ethical standards is what's necessary to stand apart from the crowd and get your research noticed.

Furthermore, you should constantly be quizzing yourself on your motivations. Many people enter the healthcare industry or embrace clinical research studies in any realm in the pursuit of profit, but a wide range of motivations exist that will be useful for fueling your research efforts. You'll inevitably get tired and want to stop, so having a strong understanding of what motivates you is going to be necessary to get through the rougher side of research when things get slow.

Think about who you're ignoring

Statistically speaking, most clinical research ignores certain groups of people more so than others. Women and minorities, for instance, are frequently afterthoughts where good clinical research is concerned, which often leads to unequal health outcomes in the general population. Unless you're intent on inadvertently contributing to an unfair healthcare system, it's imperative that you understand why medical research ignores certain groups like women if you're going to avoid that same mistake.

All research must be specific by its very nature, but don't forget to think broadly about how your clinical efforts are impacting broad groups of people. It's easy to get tunnel vision and forget that your clinical research should be for the benefit of everyone if it's going to be widely accepted and championed in the medical community.

Finally, it's imperative that you understand the importance of systematic reviews throughout the clinical research process, as thinking you're done with something just because you've finished typing up a new section is a terrible mistake to make. Systematic reviews of your entire clinical process are needed not only to uncover potential errors in your process, but also to ensure that your final report is eloquent and enjoyable to read. A failure to make your text pop and clearly convey its message is the easiest way to produce bad clinical research. Keep these tips in mind, however, and you'll soon understand the fundamentals of good clinical research and what makes some papers stand out.

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