How does a research process work?

Medicine has made significant progress enabled by the application of the scientific method. Clinical trials have played an important role in discovering new ways to prevent, identify, or treat disease. Normally, a clinical trial starts from a question or a challenge launched by a research group, which seeks to expand knowledge in a given field. 

The first step is to design a study, which includes a detailed protocol of action. This must be approved by an ethics committee or by the Institutional Review Board (IRB), which is an independent group of members of the medical and scientific community that is responsible for examining, approving, and monitoring research processes, especially when working with human subjects.

Once approval is obtained, it is time for implementation, which includes recruiting a selected group of volunteer participants, identified according to scientific criteria. An example of common research could be the evaluation of the efficacy of a treatment through a clinical analysis. To do this, it is necessary to go through a series of phases (four, in total) that allow us to obtain more information about how it works in patients, its effectiveness, the side effects it can cause, the risks it could entail, etc. Of course, participants have rights and protections.

Tipos de análisis clínicos Types of clinical trials

• Prevention trials: They seek to prevent the appearance of a disease in healthy people or the recurrence in patients who had i the condition, but managed to overcome it, by improving certain indicators. 
• Quality of life trials: They attempt to identify factors that can improve overall health or the situation of people who suffer from a specific condition. 
• Detection trials: They explore new ways or improvements in the processes for the identification of an ailment. 
• Diagnostic trials: They seek to obtain more accurate or easier ways to diagnose a condition.
• Treatment trials: They evaluate drugs or treatments (e.g., surgical methods or methodologies) to combat or treat a disease. 

• Behavioural trials: These try to find ways to promote changes in behaviour that contribute to better health.

   

Researchers meticulously design all processes to ensure that data collection is correct and accurate. They often resort to methods to verify that participants or researchers do not influence the process. Thus, the so-called "blind" or "masked" studies prevent the participants (and sometimes also the researchers themselves) from knowing which drug has been administered so as not to bias the response.

The rigorous application of this methodology has helped medicine to expand its knowledge exponentially, finding new ways to improve people's health. 

Spain, a leader in research

The times of "Let others do the inventing!" are definitely a thing of the past. As recently published by the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS), Spain reaffirmed its position in 2025 as the most active country in clinical research in the European Union.

In fact, Spain has become a true leader in some key areas such as research into drugs for the treatment of cancer, with 40% of the total number of clinical trials authorised at the national level. It also ranks highly in fields that require a high degree of specialization, such as the treatment of rare diseases, advanced therapies and the development of innovative medicines.

In 2025, the AEMPS authorised a total of 378 oncology trials, carried out in Spanish hospitals that are recognized as leading centres across Europe. It is followed in importance by research into pathologies of the immune system, with 10.5% of authorised studies; the nervous system, with 6.9%; cardiovascular pathologies, with 6.2%; and respiratory tract, with 4.4%. Furthermore, 22.5% of the research carried out in our country was focused on rare diseases.