Was Getting Paid Thousands of Dollars to Be in a Medical Study Worth It?
It was a big hunk of cash, but I was a pin cushion
I recently participated in a medical study that paid me $3250 for a total of 7 visits. The first was a screening visit, the second an intake one, then the last five were the actual study. The five actual-study visits lasted about 7 hours each, while the other two were much shorter, maybe a total of 5 hours altogether.
That means my hourly wage was about $81.25, not counting travel time. Since it took an hour both ways to get there and back, that adds another 14 hours, bringing my hourly wage down to $60.19.
Due to a nondisclosure agreement, I can’t tell you who ran the study or anything about the glucose-monitoring methods they were looking at, but I will tell you that it was about glucose monitoring and that my type 1 diabetes allowed me to qualify for it.
What Did the Study Entail?
Mostly, it involved sitting around for hours and having my blood sugar tested in a number of different ways, including with finger sticks, continuous glucose monitoring devices, blood draws, and the new methods they were testing. They would either have me drink something to raise my blood sugar over time and then lower it again with insulin…
