Your Wellbeing: Clinical trials help push forward medical research in Huntsville

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — Before medicines and new treatment methods become available to the public, they undergo clinical trials, which is part of the process that allows researchers to determines they are safe and effective.

“You’re advancing medicine and really being able to help us understand disease better,” said Dr. Tiffany Schwasinger-Schmidt, the UAB Assistant Regional Dean of Clinical Research and an Associate Professor of Medicine.

The impacts of medical research are far-reaching. The modern medicine helping someone manage otherwise debilitating symptoms, the treatments keeping fatal conditions at bay, and cures begin as clinical trials.

“Clinical trials are for everybody,” said Schwasinger-Schmidt. “As a physician, I always tell people, I don’t know if this medication or device will potentially work in everybody until we test it in everybody.”

At the University of Alabama Birmingham’s (UAB) Huntsville Medical Campus, doctors and researchers are currently carrying out trials for conditions including anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder and Alzheimer’s. Several trials have openings.

Schwasinger-Schmidt said patient safety is the top priority, with doctors making sure they have informed consent.

“We want every participant that comes in to know exactly how much blood we’re going to take, how many questions we’re going to ask them, what type of questions we’re going to ask them, and what are the potential risks, as well as the potential benefits of being in the trial,” Schwasinger-Schmidt said.

People choose to take part in clinical trials for many personal reasons. In some cases, it is because trials provide access to cutting edge treatments. Others are looking to help future generations.

“I had a participant who was doing an Alzheimer’s trial, and she came up to me one day and she asked me to have all of our staff trace their handprints,” Schwasinger-Schmidt said. “It was an odd request, but I went ahead and did it, and I came back to her and I said, okay, I need to understand. She was actually a quilter. What she did is she took the handprints and sewed them into her personal quilt. She said, ‘because of this trial, you all have become a part of my family and a part of my story. And again, I don’t know if this is going to help me or not, but you know more today about Alzheimer’s disease than we did yesterday.'”

UAB Medicine Huntsville is working to expand the number of clinical trials conducted locally. Schwasinger-Schmidt encourages anyone with an interest in participating to reach out and ask questions.