Thoughts from a Lab Rat

Clinics can ban volunteers from participating in studies for a variety of reasons. Probably the most common reasons include blood pressure, hot drug/alcohol tests and out-of-range blood labs. Other reasons may include failing to follow the rules of the clinic which can include sneaking in contraband, fighting, vandalism, not calling to cancel screenings and much more. So, if you get banned from a clinic, depending on what you got banned for, you may be able to get the decision reversed.

Drugs and Alcohol - Most clinics have a zero tolerance for positive drug and or alcohol results. If a positive screening comes up, most clinics will send your sample to an outside lab for confirmation. It the outside lab confirms the results, you will probably be banned forever. And forever is a long time!

Blood Pressure, ECG’s, urine and blood - Every study will have an acceptable range for the blood pressure and ECG results. If your results are out of that range, you will be disqualified for that study. If your results are abnormal (more than a little out of range), the study doctor may impose a temporary ban and recommend that you see your own physician and have the tests redone and if they are back in the range that the clinic is looking for, then you may be reinstated. Some exceptions may be made for ECG’s. If the results may indicate irregular heartbeat, heart murmur or other heart conditions, you may be banned permanently as these results may indicate serious heart conditions. It would be recommended that you follow up with your own physician. It is of course possible that the results at the clinic were just abnormal due to stress, nervousness and you are in fact perfectly healthy and your physician will not find any problems. You can try to forward those results to the clinic for reconsideration.

Hepatitis and HIV - Most studies will require these test and if they are positive, you will be banned from the clinic. Positive tests in most cities may also be forward to the health department. If you are informed of a positive result, you should definitely follow up with your own physician.

There are many other reasons that a clinic may ban you and it’s never an issue until it happens. If you are banned, most clinics have a person or department in charge of volunteer relations who can give you information on whether or not you can get reinstated and what information you must provide.

Don’t take everything a clinic tells you as fact. You should always follow up with you own physician. Many people do get banned from clinics but at the same time, they may find out about health conditions they did not know they had and can thus get treatment for it.