Clinical Trials and Clinical Research: A Comprehensive Review

Clinical research is an alternative terminology used to describe medical research. Clinical research involves people, and it is generally carried out to evaluate the efficacy of a therapeutic drug, a medical/surgical procedure, or a device as a part of treatment and patient management. Moreover, any research that evaluates the aspects of a disease like the symptoms, risk factors, and pathophysiology, among others may be termed clinical research. However, clinical trials are those studies that assess the potential of a therapeutic drug/device in the management, control, and prevention of disease. In view of the increasing incidences of both communicable and non-communicable diseases, and especially after the effects that Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) had on public health worldwide, the emphasis on clinical research assumes extremely essential. The knowledge of clinical research will facilitate the discovery of drugs, devices, and vaccines, thereby improving preparedness during public health emergencies. Therefore, in this review, we comprehensively describe the critical elements of clinical research that include clinical trial phases, types, and designs of clinical trials, operations of trial, audit, and management, and ethical concerns.