Digi-sign Detailed Medical Consent Made Easy

Digi sign detailed medical consent

the informed consent is really the best document that can protect you as a patient in a clinical trial even though they're long and onerous to read they're very important to understand because those are your protections and there really are a lot of protections to everybody who's participating in the study when I received a stack of papers it was at first overwhelming because it made me realize this is really serious but then that fear and apprehension was actually put to the side it was a really good feeling to know that this was not something that was being done lightly when you are considering a particular treatment or a procedure that is being offered through a clinical trial you can't receive that treatment or procedure until you've gone through the informed consent process so nothing can begin until you have actually agreed to participate and sign those legal documents the informed consent document is part of a larger process where people are being given information about the process of the study about the possible risks and benefits and about the patient rights involved in participating in a clinical trial so why is a particular treatment or procedure being tested there could be extra steps more measurements more tests and that certainly is something you should be told about and give you a permission to do the informed consent document is going to give you information about the risks as well as the benefits of participating in a clinical trial and the risks that you might see in an informed consent document are going to be specific to the treatment or procedure that's being provided my oncologist took plenty of time to explain what the options were what the risks were I do recall reading all the potential issues that could occur with this particular drug that I was going to be placed on and I knew that when I put my signature I was fully aware the pros and cons of the treatment so when a patient signs an informed consent document they're not signing away their rights they're actually gaining some rights their right to privacy their right to ask questions as the clinical trial moves forward and information about participating in the clinical trial while it protects the patient and it protects the provider it doesn't require a patient to give up their right to protections if their health care providers do something negligent in their care another core part of informed consent is that you understand you can drop out you understand you can leave without penalty and I didn't know that because initially I did believe that if I signed up for something I was gonna somehow be forced to participate and I think it's really great and important for patients to understand that you can opt out at any time a patient might want to drop out of a trial because of how they're experiencing a procedure so if they have a particular treatment that they're not responding well to or it's particularly difficult for the patient they might decide that they don't want to participate in the clinical trial and that's perfectly fine it's up to the patient to decide how they want to move forward so the informed consent process is also there for the health care team to remember all the pieces that are involved in getting health care that they need to remember to explain to you because it lays out a very specific process for confirming what the medical team has to provide to the patients throughout the clinical trials process and then it gives you contact information for who you can contact at any point during the trial if you have any questions when I try to tell researchers all the time is that a signature is not an informed consent form consent is a process it's communication it's understanding don't be embarrassed ask questions take your time when I was presented with the informed consent and all the paperwork I was given plenty of time to read the materials in the medical office I did do an initial review but my husband and I then took that paperwork home and were able to review it on her own time table and of course we also did some additional research on our own I knew as a patient that I had to do my part and make sure that there wasn't any information that was potentially being obscured or omitted if at any point you decide it's not something that you want to participate in you don't have to you don't have to sign that document and you don't actually have to participate in the trial so you can go back to your health care team and say this isn't for me and maybe there's something else that is available to me and to talk to them about what your other options are you choose to do it and we want you to have integrity because it's a very generous thing when people agree to be in research I know that they're hoping maybe this will be good for me if I have a disease but they're also thinking maybe it'll be good for others and that's a pretty precious gift