Research has its own vocabulary. These are the words you are most likely to meet on a consent form or in a call with a study team.
- Adverse event
- Any unwanted change in your health during a study, whether or not the study treatment caused it. Teams record every one.
- Arm
- One group within a study. Each arm receives a different treatment, dose or schedule.
- Blinding
- Keeping people from knowing which treatment each volunteer receives, so that expectations cannot colour the results. In a double-blind study, neither you nor the team knows.
- Control group
- The volunteers who receive a placebo or a standard treatment, so the new one has something to be measured against.
- Eligibility criteria
- The rules about who a study can include. Inclusion criteria say who can join; exclusion criteria say who cannot, usually for safety.
- Informed consent
- The process of having a study explained to you, asking questions and then deciding whether to agree. It ends with a signed form but continues for as long as you take part.
- Institutional review board (IRB)
- An independent committee that must approve a study before it starts and keeps watch over it, to protect the people who take part.
- Investigator
- The doctor or scientist who leads a study at a site. The principal investigator is responsible for everything that happens there.
- Observational study
- A study that watches and measures without giving any treatment, for example following people’s health over several years.
- Phase
- The stage a medicine has reached in testing, from small early studies of safety to large studies that compare it with existing care.
- Placebo
- Something made to look like the study treatment but with no active ingredient in it.
- Protocol
- The written plan for a study: who can join, what happens at each visit and how the results will be measured.
- Randomisation
- Assigning volunteers to arms by chance, like a coin toss, so the groups are alike at the start.
- Screening
- The first visit or call, where the team checks whether you meet the eligibility criteria.
- Site
- The clinic, hospital or research unit where your study visits happen.
- Sponsor
- The company, university or government body that pays for a study and is responsible for it overall.
- Study coordinator
- The person at the site who arranges your visits and is usually your first contact with questions.
- Washout
- A period before a study starts when you stop a medicine, so that it does not affect the results. Only ever done with the team’s guidance.