Phase 0 and Phase I drug trials seek healthy volunteers. Most other clinical trials seek patients who have a specific disease or medical condition. The diversity observed in society should be reflected in clinical trials through the appropriate inclusion of ethnic minority populations. Patient recruitment or participant recruitment plays a significant role in the activities and responsibilities of sites conducting clinical trials.
All volunteers being considered for a trial are required to undertake a medical screening. Requirements differ according to the trial needs, but typically volunteers would be screened in a medical laboratory for:
* Measurement of the electrical activity of the heart (ECG)
* Measurement of blood pressure, heart rate, and body temperature
* Blood sampling
* Urine sampling
* Weight and height measurement
* Drug abuse testing
* Pregnancy testing
It has been observed that participants in clinical trials are disproportionately white. Often, minorities are not informed about clinical trials. One recent systematic review of the literature found that race/ethnicity as well as sex were not well-represented nor at times even tracked as participants in a large number of clinical trials of hearing loss management in adults. This may reduce the validity of findings in respect of non-white patients by not adequately representing the larger populations.