What is research?
Therapeutic research and innovative treatment
Questions sometimes arise about the precise definition of medical research, and what separates it from innovative treatment and clinical audit. New treatments almost inevitably involve an element of both research and audit in order that their efficacy and risks can be properly assessed. The aim of research is therefore to produce new knowledge rather than to directly benefit the research participant. Although it is important to protect participants from as much harm as possible, it is future patients who benefit, rather than the immediate participant. [4]
Innovative treatment, by contrast, involves the modification of established methods of investigation and treatment in order to try and improve the expected health benefit, and this is widely regarded as being a standard feature of medical care. The difference between innovative treatment and therapeutic research is not always self-evident. Where any innovative investigation or treatment is likely to involve either an unknown degree of risk, or a greater risk than the intervention or treatment that it is to replace, review should be sought from an appropriate research ethics committee.
[4] See, British Medical Association, Medical ethics today. The BMA's handbook of ethics and law. London: BMA, 2003. Chapter 14.