Clinical Drug Trials and Properly Recorded Results
In order to complete a successful clinical drug trial, you will need to have more than a positive outcome for your research. You will need to follow certain guidelines in order to ensure that your data can be validated, so that your research or patent application can move forward. A large piece of the puzzle is appropriate documentation for all of your research.
Your work must be recorded in a laboratory notebook. All volumes must be numbered chronologically, and each page must be named and dated, with all data recorded in the books. None of the notebooks should be missing a whole page or a portion of a page. For safety and accuracy, the notebooks should be stored securely at your storage facility.
In addition to your meticulous notebooks, other lab procedures should be followed. Proper sterilization practices must be followed, and you must make available samples of any drug you are testing. These samples should come from the same lot that the clinical trial drugs came from, so that your work can be validated.
Of course, the most important aspect of your work is that it must be reproducible. If your results cannot be reproduced, all of the other details are unimportant; however, in case your research holds true, you will want to makes sure that you follow all of the steps of the scientific method, as well as your laboratory best practices. Your laboratory notebook will play a key role, so make sure that you keep detailed, neat, and accurate notes.