Are Clinical Trials Necessary?

The simple answer?  Yes.

First of all, what ARE "clinical trials" anyway? Again, simply put, is where people volunteer for tests to help researchers investigate new treatments for a wide variety of diseases or medical conditions.
They could be looking for how people respond to a new drug or maybe the side effects.
It also could be they are comparing existing drugs to new factors in a patients life. Clinical trials cover a wide variety of situations from new drugs or vaccines, or maybe surgical or even behavioral changes.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines a clinical trial as:

‘any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes’ 

Think of where we would be without trials. Without the volunteers. Animals, labs and computer simulations can only go so far. Nothing compares to testing with the human body itself.
Imagine diseases or conditions like, heart disease, cancer, alzheimers, parkinsons or crohns/colitis WITHOUT those clinical trials. More people are alive today, or living better lives, not only because of those scientists and researchers working hard behind the scenes to bring new treatments forward, but also those volunteering for clinical trials.

Let's take me for example. I am currently on Remicade (800 mg) every 6 weeks. Recommended dosage is 5 mg/kg, meaning 5 milligrams of Remicade for every kilogram of the patients weight.
So I'm at about 10 mg/kg because I have an ongoing problem with fistulating peri anal disease.

I remember back in early 2000/2001, my gastroenterologist telling me about Remicade and asking if I wanted to be part of possible clinical trials. After discussing in length about it, I declined. My Crohn's at the time was 'manageable' and to be honest, I was scared, eventhough my doctor said that from what she'd heard and read, the drug looked promising. I was worried about possible side effects, but that was 20 years ago.

In hindsight, I wish I had taken her advice and done it. I eventually made the decision to get the Remicade infusions many years later. I've now been on Remicade for over 7 years now and it's been a "god send", for me. I regret my decision 19 years ago. I could have been part of the initial study and had the benefits from it earlier.

Researchers and scientists are constantly trying to improve life for crohn's/colitis sufferers. Whether that be with improving on current treatments or coming up with new ones. Clinical trials are happening all the time. Your doctor would know of any current trials going on or coming up but also search your country's crohn's and colitis foundations. Many will have links on their websites to pre screening. You might get declined, but it just means you dont meet their criteria, don't let this discourage you. I've been declined numerous times for various reasons.

The more patients who are willing to participate in clinical trials, the better the research