Clinical trials can pay off for donors, patients

After getting charged $341 for a recent ultrasound, Pat Diskey knew she couldn't afford many more medical bills.

So when Diskey, a 72-year-old retiree in Itasca, heard about a study to treat high cholesterol, she jumped at it. Now, she gets her medication and checkup tests for free.

"The things they do here, if I tried to get done, would cost a lot of money," she said.

Not only are some patients saving money by participating in clinical trials, some are actually making money. In many cases, researchers are offering compensation to make participation worthwhile. And it's not just for medications. Increasingly, trials are held to determine the health effects of food.

At Provident Clinical Research & Consulting in Addison, where Diskey goes, volunteers who eat bran cereal every morning for 14 weeks straight can make up to $420. Those who drink a soy protein shake for 13 weeks can make $520. Another trial offers compensation for quaffing energy drinks.

The trials involve giving frequent blood, urine and stool samples, and some carry real, though usually small, medical risks. Still, it's one way to make a buck while learning more about your own health.

Big business

Most researchers don't emphasize money as the main motivation for participating, but it's a bonus on top of the medical benefits, Provident founder Dr. Ken Maki said.

Trials can provide valuable research into cutting-edge medical treatments, while providing free medical services to participants.

Make no mistake, medical trials are big business, and the subjects are getting only a drop in the bucket of the money spent on them. Drug firms alone reportedly spend more than $22 billion annually on medical trials.

There are currently 70,000 trials being conducted worldwide, most of them in the United States, including 6,400 in Illinois alone.

Most are funded by the federal government, universities, pharmaceutical companies, or increasingly, food and additive companies.

One reason such research is growing, Maki said, was Dannon's launch of Activia yogurt in 2006, which sold $130 million in the first year based on ads that claimed it helped the digestive tract. Such functional food sales have exploded nationally this decade.

While research on new cereal isn't as profound as Maki's field of diabetes and heart disease, he said, it does help check manufacturer's claims in the marketplace.

In general, the more time and inconvenience a study requires, or the more remotely it helps the participant's health, the better it pays.

At Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, a study of jet lag pays participants $1,500.

To cash in, volunteers come in for eight all-day-and-night sessions when they never leave the lab. They can watch TV or movies or read, but they can only sleep during specific hours, to test the effects of melatonin.

At home, participants must wear wristwatchlike devices that measure their motion 24 hours a day and light sensors around their necks. Plus, they must carry digital devices that beep to remind them to record their mood and alertness several times throughout the day.

If the participants cheat to steal a cat nap and lie about it, researchers can tell from the devices, and the participants won't get paid.

"It does affect their lives socially," co-investigator Helen Burgess said, "but after the first day or so, they get into the swing of it and it's not a big hassle."

Give and receive

An alternative to clinical studies involves donating precious bodily fluids. For instance, Midwest Sperm Bank in Downers Grove offers $75 per sperm sample, for those who pass the initial six-week screening and sample-giving.

For those seeking a quicker return on their deposit, donating plasma, the liquid part of the blood, offers a same-day payoff.

Donating is similar to giving blood, with a screening process followed by having blood drained through an IV. The plasma is taken out and the remaining blood pumped back into your veins, a process that can take about 45 minutes, and can be done twice every 10 days. The plasma is used to treat hemophilia, immune disorders and burns.

Companies like BioLife Plasma Services in DeKalb and PlasmaCare in Joliet often locate in college towns for a steady supply of poor but healthy kids with free time. They pay up to $25 for a first donation and up to $300 a month.

But for the big money in medicine, women ages 21 to 34 can sell eggs to be used by other women trying to conceive.

The Center for Human Production in Chicago and Oakbrook Terrace offers up to $5,000 (or up to $8,000 in New York) for egg donations. It involves going through a screening process, matching the donor to a recipient couple, taking Lupron injections and fertility drugs for about a month, blood tests and ultrasound, followed by a medical procedure to remove the eggs.

The center allows up to four donations three months apart, meaning a woman willing to relocate to New York could make $32,000 in a year.

Still, doctors advise patients to consider the consequences before undergoing research or becoming a donor. Investigators are required to tell every participant in a clinical trial of the possible adverse consequences, which should be spelled out in an informed consent form.

Plasma donors run the risk of infection. Egg donors run risks including ovarian hyperstimulation that can lead to bloating, nausea and diarrhea, and possible future problems with fertility. Egg and sperm donors also raise moral and emotional issues by helping to create a child without the traditional parental responsibilities.

Despite the financial motivation, many participants maintain they are involved in research or donation for other reasons.

Eileen Kallmayer, a bus driver and lunch supervisor in Schaumburg, and her 18-year-old son suffer from a rare disease called hereditary angioedema, which causes painful swelling, vomiting and dehydration.

Money initially enticed Kallmayer to drive to Rush in Chicago for a trial treatment, but when it worked, she kept going back for relief of her symptoms.

"I don't do it for the money," she said, "but it's a good feeling to actually come away with money from the doctor's office instead of having to pay them."