Medical research is essential research or applied research conducted to help the body of information in the field of medicine. Medical research can be separated into two general categories: the assessment of new treatments for both safety and usefulness in what are termed scientific trials, and all other research that contributes to the growth of new treatments. The latter is termed preclinical research if its objective is specifically to elaborate facts for the development of new therapeutic strategies.

The increased long life of humans over the past century can be considerably attributed to advances ensuing from medical research. Among the main benefits have been vaccines for measles and polio, insulin action for diabetes, classes of antibiotics for treating a host of maladies, medication for high blood stress, improved treatments for AIDS, statins and further treatments for atherosclerosis, innovative surgical techniques such as microsurgery, and increasingly winning treatments for cancer. New, helpful tests and treatments are predictable as a result of the human genome project. Challenges remain, however, including the look of antibiotic resistance and the so-called plumpness epidemic.

Medical research is extremely regulated. National regulatory establishment oversee and monitor medical research, such as for the growth of new drugs. In the USA the Food and Drug Administration oversees new drug improvement, in Europe the European Medicines Agency, and in Japan the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (Japan). The World Medical Association develops the moral standards for the medical profession, concerned in medical research. The International Conference on Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) works on the production of rules and guidelines for the growth of new medication, such as the strategy for Good Clinical Practice (GCP).