Volunteer for Cardiovascular Research

What Is Clinical Research?

Clinical research is medical research that involves people like you. People volunteer to participate in carefully conducted investigations that ultimately uncover better ways to treat, prevent, diagnose, and understand human disease. Clinical research includes clinical trials that test new treatments and therapies as well as long-term natural history studies, which provide valuable information about how disease and health progress. Clinical trials are used to determine whether new biomedical or behavioral interventions are safe, efficacious, and effective.  Clinical trials are often characterized in phases. For more information about different phases of research please visit the What is a Clinical Trial page on the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research (MICHR) website.

Why Volunteer?

Physicians who treat serious illnesses rely upon new discoveries in order to save lives. Without research volunteers, there can be no progress in the fight against cardiovascular disease.  By participating in research trials and studies you may gain access to care and treatments that are not yet available, learn more about prevention, and actively contribute to the next cardiovascular health discovery which could help generations to come. Find opportunities to volunteer at UMHealthResearch.org  

Who Can Participate?

Research requires all types of volunteers, including:

  • Patients with a specific heart diseases or conditions. Patients may either be inpatient at the hospital, receiving a procedure, or at a follow up appointment with their cardiologist.  Volunteers are needed at all points during the course of care.
  • Families of patients with a specific heart diseases or conditions may be asked to volunteer if the condition is genetic.
  • Healthy volunteers play a key role in research studies. Healthy volunteers provide crucial health information that can be used as a comparison with individuals who have a specific disease or condition.  Healthy volunteers often serve as the control group when researchers are developing a new technique such as a blood test or imaging device because healthy volunteers help define the limits of "normal."

Types of Clinical Research

Michigan Medicine is involved in many important research trials and studies.  Research being conducted at the Frankel Cardiovascular Center include many different kinds of trials and studies. Trials may be focused on surgical treatments, methods of disease prevention, new screening techniques, novel medications, or genetic analysis. 
Key clinical research areas include:

To find out more about research currently recruiting participants at the Frankel Cardiovascular Center, please visit UMHealthResearch.org.

Are You a Referring Physician?

If you are a referring physician and are interested in clinical trials being conducted at the Frankel Cardiovascular Center, please contact our Clinical Research Recruitment Coordinator for more information at 1-888-286-4420 or [email protected].

Participate in Cardiovascular Research

To learn more about participating cardiovascular clinical research, visit UMHealthResearch.org and click on the Cardiovascular Studies tile.