Clinical Trials: What, Where, When?

Abstract

Currently randomized clinical trials (RCTs) are a key stage in the development of new drugs. Despite the huge scale of the CT market, general awareness of the issue remains low and the society has formed a number of stereotypes and misconceptions about CTs. The presented review of Russian and foreign studies provides the information on the level of general awareness of clinical research in different countries, as well as among patients and practitioners. The conducted literature analysis demonstrates that awareness of clinical trials remains low both in society at large and among patients or in the professional community of practitioners. According to foreign studies, only 20–30% of respondents have heard anything about medical research while a relatively small percentage of respondents have more complete knowledge of RCTs. Among practitioners, only one in five is sufficiently informed about CTs while, according to different data, only about half fully realize what evidence-based medicine is and understand the importance of CTs as a source of reliable knowledge in everyday practice.