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For patients and families

Gold Coast Health (GCH) staff and clinicians conduct research studies and clinical trials to improve patient outcomes and to translate new evidence into practice. Patients, families, and their significant others may be approached to participate in research or clinical trials.  

You can participate in clinical trials for multiple reasons. Clinical trials and clinical research is designed to:

  • impact clinical practice and how we deliver services
  • improve clinical guidelines
  • reduce health services' costs
  • improve patient health outcomes and quality of life
  • approve new treatments, medications and medical devices to make them available to the public
  • expand treatment options.
What is a clinical trial?

A clinical trial is a research study, which investigates new medications, treatments, or medical devices to learn how people respond to different therapies.

Read more about clinical trials.

What do clinical trial phases mean?

Clinical trial phases of medical products are usually conducted over four phases to study treatment safety and efficacy.

Phase 1 trials test a treatment for the first time with a small number of people. If this testing indicates positive results, the testing will move onto each phase afterwards (2, 3, and 4). Participant numbers increase with each phase to further understand whether the treatment works and to study patient outcomes.

Read more about clinical trial phases.

How do I participate in a clinical trial?

You can take the following steps to participate in a clinical trial:

  1. Find out more information about clinical trials through
  2. To contact the clinical trial team for screening and enrolment.
    • please email or call the lead contact to get in touch with the Principal Investigator for the specific trial
    • for further information, or if there are queries, please refer to the additional contacts page.

Last updated 09 Nov 2018