We often talk about “research” and “patient care” as though they’re separate things. But in fact, they’re two parts of one seamless process designed to find answers to medicine’s most pressing questions. The connection between the two is clinical trials.

Clinical trials are carefully monitored studies in which new drugs or combinations of drugs, therapies, procedures, or tools, or new uses for existing drugs, are tested, involving patients who have volunteered and been approved to participate in the study. These trials are essential for determining whether the drug or treatment being tested is both effective and safe. Every day, Mayo Clinic has thousands of clinical trials underway in almost every field and specialty, from COVID-19 and cancer to rare and complex conditions for which there may currently be no effective treatments at all.

Because research and care are so closely integrated at Mayo Clinic, it’s not surprising that many of our physicians are themselves also researchers, leading clinical trials to find new and better answers they can put to work to help the patients they see every day.

As with everything at Mayo Clinic, benefactor support is an essential part of our clinical trial structure. The gifts we receive from visionary benefactors not only help carry out the trials themselves, but also help us continually improve our technological infrastructure, take advantage of the latest and most advanced diagnostic tools, and translate discoveries into trials, and eventually therapies, more rapidly than before.