"Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought."

"MODERN MEDICAL ADVANCES HAVE HELPED  MILLIONS OF PEOPLE LIVE LONGER, HEALTHIER LIVES. WE OWE THESE IMPROVEMENTS TO DECADES OF INVESTMENT IN MEDICAL RESEARCH"

                                                          

  Definition

Medical research involves research in a wide range of fields, such as biology, chemistry, pharmacology and toxicology with the goal of developing new medicines or medical procedures or improving the application of those already available. It can be viewed as encompassing preclinical research (for example, in cellular systems and animal models) and clinical research (for example, clinical trials).

Basic medical research

Areas tackled in the most fundamental parts of medical research include cellular and molecular biology, medical genetics, immunology, neuroscience and psychology. Researchers, mainly in universities or government-funded research institutes, aim to establish an understanding of the cellular, molecular and physiological mechanisms underpinning human health and disease.
Since many organisms share a common evolutionary history with humans and hence common features and systems, the basic end of medical research these days shades into basic biology.
         An important kind of medical research is clinical research, which is distinguished by the involvement of patients. Other kinds of medical research include pre-clinical research, for example on animals, and basic medical research, for example in genetics.

Preclinical research

Pre-clinical research covers research that prepares the ground for clinical research with patients. Typically the work requires no ethical approval (though some work with animals does), is supervised by people with PhDs rather than medical doctors, and is carried out in a university or company rather than a hospital or surgery.

Clinical research 

Clinical research is carried out with patients. It is generally supervised by doctors in a medical setting such as a hospital and requires ethical approval. Clinical research is a branch of healthcare science that determines the safety and effectiveness of medications, devices, diagnostic products and treatment regimens intended for human use. These may be used for prevention, treatment, diagnosis or for relieving symptoms of a disease.