If you’ve ever shut down a case of the sniffles with cold medicine, had an antibiotic prescribed for an infection or hiked up your sleeve for a vaccine, it’s only because that treatment endured a long, thorough research process. Clinical trials are the gold standard for determining the benefits and harms of any health intervention, says Dr. Jonathon Maguire, a pediatric scientist in the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. “We want the health care system to be as strong as it can be and for the risks of health interventions to be as low as possible—and for that, we need clinical trials.”
