One of the strategic approaches at the Dr. Josep Trueta Girona Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBGI) is based in the clinical research that is carried out at surrounding health institutions and/or associates. This research represents an example of transference to the society/patient and an economic return, as well as a return in terms of care, giving patients the possibility to access cutting-edge therapies or technologies and to establish links with the pharmaceutical industry.
This research is essential in being able to improve existing therapies and treatments, as well as to discover new ones, and to be able to provide the population with better and higher quality care.
Clinical research focuses on people, both healthy subjects and patients, data or tissue samples from people, to therefore study the diseases and to find different and better ways of detecting, diagnosing, preventing and treating them.
Clinical research is usually carried out in academic hospitals, as these have the research professionals and staff with the experience to carry out the projects and can offer access to a large number of participants. They can either be sponsored by private external sponsors or even by the research group itself (internal sponsor), if they have the necessary resources. In any case, these clinical research projects must be assessed by a Clinical Research Ethics Committe (CEIM) and obtain the relevant authorization from all authorities to be able to begin.
The types of clinical research can be classified according to their objectives and can include clinical trials or observational studies, among others.
Clinical trials study and determine the safety and efficiency of the medications, devices, diagnostic products and treatment regimens for human use and are usually carried out in different phases (phase I-IV).
In observational studies*, the research team limits itself to observe the health phenomenon under study, without any intervention, with the aim of describing or analysing it. Observational studies can be classified into descriptive studies where a working hypothesis is not defined and analytical studies where the design is made to answer at least one research question. In contrast, experimental studies are prospective studies where the researcher controls the intervention or exposure factor in the study, in other words, decides which subjects will receive the treatment and how they will receive it. The most important experimental design is the randomised clinical trial.
The IDIBGI collaborates in the organization and management of the clinical trials and studies that are carried out at the Doctor Josep Trueta University Hospital and associates, among others, that may be sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry or even by the research centre/team:
At the IDIBGI, clinical research is basically organized into different areas that cover different Care Services of the ICS, IAS and ICO and research groups of the IDIBGI:
If you are interested in carrying out clinical research projects, please refer to the IDIBGI Clinical Trials Unit.
You can consult the active clinical trials and research projects at IDIBGI here.
