More Time with Your Doctor or Medical Team? In a CLINICAL TRIAL?

Jan Manarite, June 20, 2025

Between the doctor shortages across the United States, the ‘physician burnout’ that’s been documented for years, and the Insurance Companies restricting your physician to a
15-minute appointment with you?…every patient and caregiver needs more time with their doctors.  Most doctors also wish they had more time with their patients.

A clinical trial is another treatment decision for a patient, where risk and benefit should be weighed out.  The fact that most clinical trials implement more time between the patient and the clinical trial physician is one probable benefit.  This is huge for some patients, and should be factored into your decision as a plus.  Make sure you ask about this.

Dr Benjamin Levy from Johns Hopkins states that “Patients participating in trials are typically followed more closely…than other patients. The research study itself often mandates a certain number of imaging tests and in-person appointments… For many, more frequent check-ins is reassuring, as patients better understand how they’re responding to treatment.”

Better Results?  Maybe

Since clinical trials require a lot of data collection (tests, questions, etc), this can often mean the patient receives more attention.  This attention can result in closer monitoring of treatment response and side effects, and often better care or results, even in the ‘standard of care’ group.    

Dr John Sylvester puts it this way, “due to the higher quality controls built into clinical trials, [many patients] experience significantly better outcomes than patients receiving standard of care treatment not on clinical trials.”

Some patients also report receiving more attention, more communication, and more access to someone on the trial staff.  “Every appointment I had (once I agreed to the clinical trial),  someone from the clinical trial team was there for us.  We always had an email address and had frequent communications.  There was also a clinical trial team member present in all of my oncologist appointments, which were at the same university hospital.”  Rick, metastatic PC, clinical trial participant in 2022 

If you are considering a clinical trial, make sure you write down and ask the questions that matter to you, and that help you make the decision based on both benefit and risk. 
Better Questions will get you Better Answers.

This article was approved for accuracy by a member of our Medical Advisory Board