Importance and difficulty of determining the cost of clinical research

The cost of clinical research has become increasingly important over the last few years because of changes in the health care market and the resulting decline in hospital margins. The emergence of contract research organizations has also caused academic medical centers to pay attention to costs. Although the consideration of clinical research costs has become vital, a number of factors make cost evaluation a difficult process. These include confusion about terminology, lack of specificity, estimation of the cost of complications, and duration of patient participation, as well as the assignment of personnel costs and infrastructure costs.