Many people avoid medical research studies because they can be time-consuming with little financial incentive, or they might have false belief that they are dangerous. There are many reasons to participant in the various types of medical research available.

1. You Want to Help People

Although many types of paid medical research are clinical trials, there are easier ways you can help the medical community and be compensated for your time. There are online surveys, interviews, and focus groups for people with specific medical conditions that need participants. Often, the scope of this type of research is acquiring more information from people who have taken certain medications. This might include any benefits, side effects, or ways you wish the treatment for your condition could improve. Additionally, your views might be taken into consideration before a new medication makes it to the market.

2. You Want to Try Better Treatments

Many people with chronic medical conditions, such as autoimmune diseases, have taken most of the medications available with little or no improvement in their condition. Since many of these conditions are progressive, it is easy to become tolerant to your current medication and soon run out of options. Fortunately, there are new medications being tested or combinations of existing medications that need to be tested. This gives people the opportunity to try a medication that might be more effective at controlling their disease symptoms. If a medication is in the testing phase, your participation in a clinical trial can help researchers determine if the new medication might be helpful, and the results of the clinical trial may help it become approved for widespread use.

3. You Have a Life-Threatening Condition

Some people have exhausted all treatment options for a life-threatening disease, such as late-stage or especially aggressive forms of cancer, and need the hope that comes along with trying experimental treatments that might prolong life, or in rare cases, halt the disease process. In the field of cancer research, there are always novel approaches being developed, but even if they are successful in helping people with cancer, they can take time to win approval. If you have certain forms of cancer, such as those with a poor prognosis, you may want to discuss with your oncologist the possibility of entering into a clinic trial as quickly as possible. Not all clinical trials are for people with cancer who have exhausted all options. You might be able to enter into the trial while you are currently going through treatment.

Paid research is invaluable in the development of new treatments for a wide range of conditions. For many people, an incentive is just a small part of the reward that comes from furthering medical research.