A Questionnaire Survey on awareness of Clinical Trials Among Medical Students

Abstract

There is an immense need to inculcate research in the medical curriculum of undergraduate medical students, which will help them to interpret the evidence based literature like journal articles, analyze, interpret & to help their decision making ability. Involvement in innovative research will help them develop a holistic attitude towards the patients especially in terms of informed consent and ethical decisions. This study a questionnaire survey was conducted on undergraduate medical students. It consists of statements spread over various aspects of clinical trials. The percentage of questions answered correctly in each group was graded as good, average and poor depending on scores. A total of 257 students participated in the study. Students had average knowledge about statements describing concept, need of clinical trial, participation, about Food and Drug Administration, informed consent had average knowledge. The response was poor for statements on Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Drug Controller General of India (DCGI). The medical undergraduates are future innovators, clinicians and scientific explorers. It would be better if they are trained at earlier days of learning about clinical trials/research and medical ethics these can be made a part of medical curriculum so that they can build their concrete future.

Evaluation of knowledge, attitude and practices of postgraduate medical students towards clinical research in a tertiary care teaching hospital

“…In contrast, in studies by Kanna et al, Sharma et al and Vittalrao et al; the overall awareness about clinical trials was found to be less. 5,17,18 Also, in our study, very few students had an opportunity to participate in clinical trials in the past which complies with a study conducted by Sabzwari et al 19 Discrepancy between attitude and practices was also observed in this study. Although, majority of the students considered clinical research as an unnecessary burden on already overworked PG students but still most of them wished to get involved in clinical research in future.…”

Knowledge of medical students on clinical trials

“…7 The other reasons are cumbersome paperwork and timeconstraints. 8,9 Research has not become a compulsory part of India's undergraduate medical education curriculum so far. In Germany, where research is an integral part of the undergraduate medical curriculum; 28% of the publications in a particular institution involved undergraduate medical students.…”

Clinical Trials: Perspectives of Medical Community

“…Medical Council of India has incorporated clinical research and ethics in the undergraduate teaching curriculum for medical students from the year 2019 [16]. Recent studies have shown lack of knowledge of ethics and Good Clinical Practice guidelines for the proper conduct of CTs among medical undergraduates and investigators [19,20].…”