Roughly, there are 50,000 clinical trials worldwide – trials designed to test new drugs and therapies, often involving sick patients as willing participants.

Unfortunately, for a sick patient it can be very difficult to find a clinical trial that might benefit him or her.

Enter “Clinical Trials Bot”, software created by Microsoft to allow patients to search studies, answer some questions, and hopefully find a list of clinical trials that may be right for them.

Certainly, when someone is sick or dying, finding the right clinical trial may be a matter of life and death. However, there are some possible downsides.

Microsoft is apparently trying to sell this tool to drug and device companies to allow them to better find patient participants. Although the patient and company may have a shared goal of success, the company’s main goal is always profit. As such, patients with little or no hope of success may be coerced into participating in a clinical trial that has little benefit to the patient, but helps the company reach its goal of being able to sell whatever product they are testing.

You can read more here:

[Microsoft builds a bot to match patients to clinical trials](https://www.seattletimes.com/business/microsoft-builds-a-bot-to-match-patients-to-clinical-trials/)