If your doctor asked you to take part in a research study, would you do it? Too few people are saying yes. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association looks at the shortage of people enrolled in medical studies and why it matters.
Although Lynn Crawford was suffering from constant leg pain, when her doctor suggested she enroll in a medical research study about the condition, she wasn't sure that she wanted to.
“I thought about it and I thought, 'well I'm not going to get anything out of this,'” Crawford says.
Like most Americans, Lynn felt no personal obligation to participate. Doctor Ezekiel Emanuel of the National Institutes of Health feels very strongly that that attitude needs to change.
“Right now, our perception is research is dangerous, you don't have to participate. If you do, you're doing something extraordinary or you're contributing to charity. Instead we have to say, it's the normal routine and if you're not participating that should become well, why aren't you participating? Do you have a good reason?” Emanuel says.
In an article, featured this week in JAMA, Dr. Emanuel and two colleagues assert that like clean air or national security, medical research is actually a "public good" that everyone benefits from - and that requires everyone's participation.
“You benefit from the participation of someone before, by getting safer drugs or better information about what works and what doesn't, and therefore you have an obligation to contribute to that common pool of information,” says Emanuel.
An estimated 16 million more people are needed annually for biomedical research. Greater participation will vastly speed up findings on new drugs and procedures with the potential to save lives.
Lynn Crawford eventually decided to join the study and saw improvement in her leg pain - she went on to enroll in two more, motivated by the impact her involvement could have for others, as well as for herself.
“I do think that this research will benefit everybody, in the future and for some of us even right now,” Crawford says.
