My heart is open - BMC series blog

"The magnetic resonance image on the right is my heart. It was taken a little while back when I took part in a clinical trial investigating the genetics of heart abnormalities. I was just one of many healthy(ish) volunteers recruited to provide data to be compared against patients whose heart function had gone awry. I don’t know at what stage the trial is at currently and I don’t know when or where the investigators will choose to publish their results, but I hope that they choose to publish them openly. Healthy volunteers take part in clinical trials for many reasons. Out of curiosity, sometimes out of benevolence, often because of financial incentives. Regardless of their motivations, it seems likely that at least some of each would be sufficiently curious to see the full results  and know that their contribution was of use. You could argue that the researchers are free to do with my data what they wish and you’d be right – they are. But wouldn’t it be great if everyone that took part could also read it? The same could be said of all research involving human participants. Someone, somewhere has advanced science infinitesimally by volunteering their time– and whatever bodily function they agreed to use– to investigate a problem. A problem which at some point will ultimately go on to improve the life of someone else, however tangentially. So here are two arms of a study: healthy volunteers, who can say 'I was involved in this, I helped to move forward the science'; and patients, who can say 'I was involved in this, this science is moving forward to help me”. I’m sure both parties would wish for the world to share in this ..."