NIH Web site for medical research studies of children

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has launched a Web site called "Children and Clinical Studies" to offer parents and health care providers a guide to medical research involving children. As noted on the site, children have often had to accept medicines and treatments based on what is known to work in adults, a sort of "hand-me-down" approach. As a pediatric nurse I've often seen that treatments for children are done on a trial-and-error basis, and in many cases medicines that work for adults do not work for, or are not safe for, children.

The site has a lot of great information and an excellent video that explains what clinical studies for children are and what participation means for families. Some of the children featured in the video have rare diseases such as focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), Fabry disease, and Marfan syndrome. The video is 10 minutes long and I highly recommend it.

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