NIAID HIV and Emerging Infectious Diseases Program
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is eligible to participate in a trial or study?
Where are you located?
I live far away. What about travel and hotels?
Where can I park?
Will you bill my health insurance?
How do you protect my confidentiality?
Do I need to be referred to you by my doctor?
How do you interact with my doctor?
What if I have an emergency?
Will you pay for all of my medical care?
What if I join a study and it isn't right for me?
So how does it work?
Do you have any general information about HIV and emerging infectious diseases?
Who is eligible to participate in a trial or study?
Anyone who meets a study’s eligibility criteria can participate. Eligibility criteria differ for each study, so see our list of current clinical trials and studies for more information. If you are interested in a study and think you meet the eligibility criteria, call the contact for the study. He or she will ask you questions to determine whether or not you fit the criteria.
Where are you located?
We are located in the Warren G. Magnuson Clinical Center, which is the hospital and outpatient clinic center on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus. It also is called Building 10. See a map of the NIH campus (available in English and Spanish).
The NIH campus is easily accessible by car or public transportation. Get directions to the NIH Clinical Center.
I live far away. What about travel and hotels?
Our goal is to provide fair, reasonable, and cost-efficient travel support for all of our study volunteers. All potential volunteers pay for their initial trips to the NIH campus, where they are screened for study eligibility. If you are found to be eligible for study participation, your travel and accommodation costs for study-related activities may be compensated. Please see Visitor Information for more details.
Where can I park?
There are two options for parking, and both are free.
- If you choose to self-park, go to the Patient Parking garage (P1), which is on the west end of the Clinical Center off Convent Drive. Parking attendants will be available to assist you. You’ll enter the hospital through a lobby on the lower (B1) level. Stop by the Hospitality desk to validate your parking ticket. The South Elevators serve the parking garages.
- If you’d prefer to use the valet parking service for patients and visitors, drive to the Clinical Center’s entrance on Center Drive. Valet parking is available Monday through Friday, 7 a.m.–10 p.m. ET (excluding federal holidays). When you arrive, have your valet claim ticket validated at the Hospitality desk. Get directions to the NIH Clinical Center.
Will you bill my health insurance?
No.
How do you protect my confidentiality?
The Federal Privacy Act protects the confidentiality of your NIH medical record. The Privacy Act allows release of some information from your medical record without your permission, for example, if it is required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), members of Congress, law enforcement officials, or other authorized people. The NIH Clinical Center complies with Maryland State laws for reporting certain infectious diseases and conditions. If you have a diagnosis of AIDS or if you have symptoms of HIV infection, your doctor is responsible for reporting this to the health department. If you have any questions about HIV testing or this policy, you can discuss them with your study team or the Clinical Center HIV counselor. For more information, see NIH Clinical Center Legal, Ethical, and Safety Issues. When results of an NIH research study are reported in medical journals or at scientific meetings, the study volunteers are not named or identified. Some studies have a pharmaceutical company sponsor, and in this case data about you (with your name removed) might be submitted to the pharmaceutical company.
Do I need to be referred to you by my doctor?
Some studies allow you to refer yourself and some studies require a referral from a physician. We suggest that you discuss a study with your doctor for his or her advice about participation.
How do you interact with my doctor?
All patients participating in NIAID clinical studies must have their own physician or medical care provider. We do not provide primary care (general medical care). We provide care only as it relates to a particular study. We cannot provide long-term care. We will ask you to identify your care provider when you come to the clinic. You also must give us permission to contact this care provider throughout your participation in a study. We usually send a letter to your physician that explains the study, and we routinely send information to your physician (e.g., results of blood tests). You may change your doctor at any time by providing us with the new person to contact, along with permission to contact him or her. We encourage you not to have identical blood tests performed by your doctor and by your NIAID study team because of the total amount of blood that could be lost to you by duplicating tests.
What if I have an emergency?
The NIH Clinical Center has no emergency room, but we do have people available 24 hours a day to respond to study participants in the case of an emergency that might be related to study participation. If it is an immediate emergency unrelated to study participation, you would need to go to the closest emergency room and/or seek care from your primary care doctor or clinic.
Will you pay for all of my medical care?
All study-related clinic visits, hospital stays, procedures, and medications will be provided free of charge. NIH will not provide general medical care or pay for services delivered at other facilities.
What if I join a study and it isn't right for me?
You may choose not to take part in certain study-related procedures, or you may withdraw from the study at any time. In either case, you will not lose any benefits to which you are otherwise entitled. However, to receive care at NIH, you must be taking part in a study or be under evaluation for study participation.
So how does it work?
If you find a study for which you are interested in participating, you will do the following:
- Screen by phone
- If you are likely to be eligible, you will be sent a study consent form that you should review with your doctor, family, and friends before your screening visit. You also will be sent a health history questionnaire so we can gather specific health information from you.
- If you are unlikely to be eligible, you may be referred to another study if one is available.
- Go to NIH for a screening visit
- You will meet with the study coordinator to discuss the study in detail and review the study consent form.
- If you and the study are a good match, you will be asked to sign the study consent form.
- After that, some screening procedures will take place (e.g., blood work, health history, and physical exam).
- Get the screening procedure results
- If the screening results indicate that you are eligible, the study may require further screening procedures or you will schedule your study visits.
- If the screening results indicate that you are not eligible, the study coordinator may refer you to another study or hold your information (with your permission) in case another study becomes available.
You are free to change your mind and withdraw at any time during the screening process or during your participation in a study.
Do you have any general information about HIV and emerging infectious diseases?
Read about HIV/AIDS and NIAID’s HIV/AIDS research program and emerging infectious disease research at NIAID.
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