Clinical Trials

Clinical trials are medical research where doctors use experimental new drugs or treatments on patients. The treatments have not been conclusively proven safe and effective, but they are only approved for testing on patients if the evidence to date suggests that they are.

Cardiothoracic surgery is changing quickly, as surgeons find ways to repair the heart and lungs through smaller incisions and often in older patients. Stanford pioneers many of these new approaches. Sometimes we serve as one of several sites in a national or regional clinical trial. We also host clinical trials led by our own faculty members.