The Department of Neurology at Emory University is a leader in research, which can take several different forms, and information about ongoing studies can be found through links on this page.
Patients who obtain their neurologic care at Emory are encouraged to allow Emory researchers to study their clinical information obtained through routine medical care so that new patterns associated with neurologic disease can be discovered. It is this research mission of Emory University that distinguishes medical care at Emory from care from other institutions, and which allows Emory to continue to offer state of the art and cutting edge diagnosis and treatments across multiple neurological diseases. By allowing researchers to review routine clinical care information, new disease patterns are often first identified. As with all research, findings are reported across many patients with similar conditions and individuals are never personally identified.
Many neurology patients also volunteer to participate in Clinical Trials. Unlike the participation described above where patterns of disease are studied based upon results from clinical care, Clinical Trials are formal research experiments in which new treatment or therapies are studied. In most cases, the treatment or drug that a study subject receives is randomly determined, and neither the patient nor the Emory researcher is aware of the specific treatment until the study is completed (double blind study). There are different types of Clinical Trials, but all share the common goal of finding new and improved ways to better treat neurologic disease with fewer side effects
Clinical research studies are in some ways similar to Clinical Trials, but they are not designed to test whether one treatment option or drug is better than a different treatment. Clinical research studies tend to study patients on multiple occasions to examine how disease patterns change over time. Other clinical research studies are designed to investigate relationships between disease conditions such as disease duration. Other markers of disease burden such as with new brain imaging techniques of MRI and PET. Still others might be designed to study side effect risks for clinical treatments that are being performed (e.g., surgery).
The final area of research focuses on uncovering mechanisms of neurologic disease in laboratory animals. This level of research is critical to improve understanding of how neurologic disease develops and progresses, which then provides the foundation to translate these findings to improved treatment in clinical population.
We thank all of our patients who participate in research in the Department of Neurology. It only is through the willingness of patients to participate in research that our understanding of disease has continued to advance. This has permitted the development new treatment approaches that optimize disease management by providing the best clinical options for treatment, while understanding treatment risks that are always associated with medical care. Continued research participation provides the greatest opportunity to insure that future patients will benefit from new and improved approaches that minimize disease burden, both for patients and their families.
Clinical Research
Clinical Research in the Department of Neurology is designed to identify important patterns of brain function by studying patients with clinical disease and also studying healthy volunteers. The primary distinction between Clinical Research compared to Clinical Trials is that in Clinical Research, no treatment intervention is being formally investigated. Thus, rather than seeking to determine what is the best approach to managing and treat various neurologic diseases, Clinical Research addresses how neurologic diseases affect factors such language, memory, or mood, characterizes the effects of treatment that is being received as part of the normal standard of clinical care, or may simply study disease progression over time based. Many Clinical Research studies in the Department of Neurology involve imaging techniques such as MRI or PET. In addition, most patients being seen by Neurology faculty consent to allow their treatment records to be studied anonymously to uncover new patterns to improve clinical care.
Basic Research
Emory University has one of the most active neuroscience research communities in the US, with over 400 neuroscientists from different Emory departments contributing to a translational neuroscience continuum. Many neuroscience researchers are from the Department of Neurology, who not only are principal investigators on basic neuroscience research projects, but who also play an critical role in the graduate training of future researchers though their active membership in the Emory Neuroscience program. There is great diversity in the basic research that is conducted in the Neurology Department, reflected in the Department’s primary research locations in the Woodruff Memorial Research Building, Center for Neurodegenerative Disease/Whitehead Research Building, and Emory National Primate Research Center. Regardless of the specific types of research, they all share a common goal of advancing our understanding of disease mechanism with the ultimate goal of translating research findings to clinical applications to significantly improve patient care.
Clinical Trials
Clinical trials are an essential step in developing new and better ways to prevent and treat disease. New tests or treatments developed in the laboratory and in animal studies must be tested in human clinical trials to determine if these new tests or treatments work and are safe.
Clinical trials may test new drugs or new combinations of drugs, new surgical procedures or devices, or new ways to use existing treatments or improve the quality of life for people with chronic illnesses.
Click here for more information on clinical trials offered by the Department of Neurology through the Emory Healthcare Clinical Trials Database.