Logan Science Journalism Fellows in the Biomedical Hands-On Research Course learn lab techniques. Credit: Tara Haelle

By Tara Haelle
For the Association of Health Care Journalists

It’s not difficult to understand why clinical trials are so incredibly expensive. There’s the recruitment of the participants and their compensation, the cost of the drugs themselves, the work that has to go into ensuring both participants and clinicians are appropriately blinded (at least in double-blinded trials), the many visits to monitor symptoms and improvement, the time spent crunching the data – the dollars add up fast.