Medicine is one of the world’s oldest professions and continues to be a key source of care for people all over the world. A doctor can diagnose a disease based on physical, emotional, or biochemical findings. They can treat patients using various methods such as surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and other methods. Medicine is also the science and discipline of treating a patient with, handling the entire treatment process, diagnosis, prevention of the disease or injury, and bringing up their general health.
The field of medicine has many branches including research, diagnostic studies, clinical trials, pharmacology, preventive care, heath care, obstetrics/women’s health, and other aspects of the science of medicine. There are hundreds of pharmaceutical companies in the world that research and produce medicines to cure diseases using new techniques and ways of producing the drugs. As a result, it is not surprising to know that the number of medicines available to cure different diseases is many times more than the number of doctors or medical practitioners who are trained to cure those infections. Due to this dynamic and complicated relationship between medicine, many people often confuse the two for one and the same. However, this is highly incorrect.
Many people also mistakenly believe that if a medicine can cure a disease that it can also be used as prevention against other diseases. This is wrong. Since prevention is always better than cure, you may use medicines against some diseases but not against others. Also, some of these medicines are approved only for use as prevention and clinical trials may use the medicines to cure some of its side effects and after effects while trying to prevent some other diseases.
Many health professionals agree with this fact because prevention is always better than cure. This is why health professionals always recommend people to take precautionary measures like practicing good hygiene, not consuming polluted and noxious foods, and abstaining from unsafe and risky recreational activities. All these preventive measures will greatly help to prevent infections and other health problems. But, since each infection may have multiple causes and may occur at different stages of the body’s development, clinical trials need to be conducted to identify the causes of each infection and then the appropriate medication may be recommended for the treatment of each cause.
Clinical trials are very important to improve the quality of public health and medical services. It helps the scientists to develop new medicines; it helps the scientists to conduct extensive research on various diseases and health conditions and it also helps the doctors and other health professionals to learn more about their patients and their health conditions. The success of the clinical trials greatly depends on the quality of the evidence-based medicine. As long as there is no adequate proof regarding the effectiveness of a medicine, it cannot be marketed in the market as ‘effective’.
Because of the importance of clinical trials for modern medicine, some people still do not trust clinical trials. However, this should not be a reason for people to refrain from getting the proper treatment for their diseases. In fact, the more knowledge that the doctors and other health care workers have about the effectiveness of different medicines, the better they can treat their patients. Proper understanding about the nature of the illness, the characteristics of the disease and the most appropriate treatment can help both the doctor and the patients. If there is a need for more studies concerning a certain medicine or a new one, it is essential for the pharmaceutical companies to conduct such studies. Therefore, it is just right that people trust contemporary medicine based on the result of clinical trials.