The study is about to end. You’ve been involved for a few weeks, months, or years. Your child may be on a study drug or treatment. Perhaps the costs for additional medical care were covered by the study. Maybe your child hasn’t been to their primary care doctor while they were in the study.
So what do you do now?
There are some important things you’ll want to find out
- Will the treatment stop?
- If it is helping, what about further treatment?
- What happens to my child’s study data?
- How will our regular care team be involved?
- Will I get study results? When and how?
- Will our regular doctor get our medical records?
- Do my regular doctors know what medication my child was on?
Who do you ask?
Just as much as the study team was there to help you enroll, they are there to help you when the study ends. The study team cares about your child’s safety and helping your child get back to his or her regular healthcare after you have left the study or the study has ended. It is important to the study team that your child remains safe, and they will help you to transition off the study. This assistance may mean weaning your child off of a medicine, helping you get back to your regular healthcare provider or continuing to monitor your child for side effects. Your study team is there to help with this process.
After the study is over
Even after a study ends, there are times when the study team may need to talk with you. Maybe they want to tell you the results of the entire study. Or maybe they want to see if you are interested in joining a new study or a study that will follow the same group of children for a longer time. Sometimes there is a question they forgot to ask you during the study or they may want to discuss a medical or study matter with you. You may also find that you would like to speak with a member of the study team or visit them when your child comes for regular visits. Most study teams will tell you that they become very attached to the parents and children who were in their studies and really enjoy seeing them after the study ends.