
A non-pharmaceutical intervention or non-pharmacological intervention (NPI) is any type of health intervention which is not primarily based on medication. Some examples include exercise, sleep improvement, or dietary habits.
What are non-invasive interventions?
Non-Invasive Interventions are used individually or in combinations to diagnose and eliminate and/or reduce pain. The use of x ray, MRI, CT Scan, EMG, myelogram and discogram will allow your doctor to objectively determine the specific cause (s) of your pain.
What is a non-interventional trial?
[3] Non-Interventional Trial = A study where the medicinal product (s) is (are) prescribed in the usual manner in accordance with the terms of the marketing authorisation.
What are the different types of non-interventional pain treatment?
Some common types of non-interventional pain treatment options are: 1 Physical Therapy 2 Pain medications like NSAIDS or opioids 3 Muscle relaxants
What are the different types of interventional therapies?
Invasive techniques such as nerve blocks, surgery, or implantable drug delivery systems are all types of interventional therapies. Doctors typically resort to interventional methods in cases where severe pain is significantly disrupting your daily life, or when other treatments have not been effective in reducing or eliminating pain.

What is the difference between interventional and non interventional study?
While category 3 research remained harmonized with the definition of a non-interventional study provided in the current DIR 2001/20/EC, category 2 research is interventional research where the drug product is not the object of the research and where the intervention (i.e., a blood sample) poses minimal risk to patients ...
What is interventional treatment?
Non-surgical interventional treatment involves a range of procedures designed to treat pain that do not include surgery.
What phase are non interventional studies?
Phase IV refers to large studies, interventional or non-interventional, that are often used to assess serious adverse effects in a sizeable population, but that are sometimes also used to approve additional uses of a drug or to introduce physicians and patients to new treatments [1].
What is interventional drug?
A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
How is interventional treatment better than surgery?
You will receive a local anesthesia to calm you and eliminate the risks and recovery from using general anesthesia. Faster Recovery Times- Generally, the recovery time from an IR procedure will be much faster than traditional surgery methods. For example, a hysterectomy can require weeks for the patient to recover.
What are interventional injections?
Sometimes performed under live X-ray or ultrasound guidance, the procedure involves injecting medications such as corticosteroids, local anesthetics, or hyaluronan directly into the source of your pain.
What does non interventional mean?
Non interventional studies are a type of observational study. In general, a non interventional study (NIS) (also called a non interventional trial) is where a patient takes regular medicine, prescribed according to the label.
What is a prospective non interventional study?
Non-interventional prospective studies (NIS) are prospective studies which are set up to investigate events that will take place after the study has been initiated.
Are all clinical trials interventional?
Medical research studies involving people are called clinical trials. There are two main types of trials or studies - interventional and observational. Interventional trials aim to find out more about a particular intervention, or treatment. A computer puts people taking part are put into different treatment groups.
What is interventional trial?
Interventional study (clinical trial) A type of clinical study in which participants are assigned to groups that receive one or more intervention/treatment (or no intervention) so that researchers can evaluate the effects of the interventions on biomedical or health-related outcomes.
What does interventional study mean?
Interventional Studies An interventional study tests (or tries out) an intervention -- a potential drug, medical device, activity, or procedure -- in people. It is also commonly referred to as a clinical trial.
Is Interventional a word?
Examples of interventional An interventional radiologist inserted a catheter in one of her arteries to spray the clot with anticoagulants, or blood thinners.
What is interventional therapy?
Invasive techniques such as nerve blocks, surgery, or implantable drug delivery systems are all types of interventional therapies. Doctors typically resort to interventional methods in cases where severe pain is significantly disrupting your daily life, or when other treatments have not been effective in reducing or eliminating pain.
What are the most common interventional techniques?
Specific techniques are used for specific symptoms and conditions, but here are some of the most common interventional techniques: Injections: Steroid injections target pain points in the body to reduce inflammation. Commonly administered injections are facet joint, trigger joint and epidural injections. Spinal Cord Stimulation: An electrical ...
What is the difference between an epidural and an intrathecal infusion?
Epidural infusions target the spinal cord, while intrathecal infusions target the brain. Ablation: Radiofrequency waves are used to heat the nerve tissue to ablate it, thus reducing pain signals that are emitted from the source.
Is muscle relaxant invasive?
Muscle relaxants. However, even though these solutions are “non-invasive” they still come with their own set of drawbacks. There are countless harmful side effects that accompany the use of pain medications, and unfortunately most physical therapy locations aren’t open 24/7 to treat pain whenever it hits.
Is non-interventional pain management effective?
The Non-Interventional Pain Management Alternative. Granted, all of these techniques can be effective for some, but they don’t work for everyone, and they are nevertheless invasive techniques. Most patients want to do everything they can before trying interventional pain management.
What are interventions in research?
Let’s look at some examples of common ‘interventions’ found in real world research: 1 PHYSICAL INTERVENTION – You want to include collection of biosamples (5ml blood draw) to support a research hypothesis knowing that the biosampling will not impact the normal care of the patient 2 DIGITAL INTERVENTION – You want to study the impact of a disease education app on patient quality of life 3 PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERVENTION – You want patients to fill out detailed and lengthy questionnaires (e.g., PROs) to help you understand the real-world effectiveness of the routine treatment they are already receiving 4 NO INTERVENTION – You want to collect effectiveness information on the patients’ normal care (treatment) to provide a credible/ robust baseline for future gene therapy
What is clinical trial?
[1] Clinical Trial = Any investigation in human subjects intended to discover or verify the clinical, pharmacological and/or other pharmacodynamic effects of one or more investigational medicinal product (s), and/or to identify any adverse reactions to one or more investigational medicinal product (s) and/or to study absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of one or more investigational medicinal product (s) with the object of ascertaining its (their) safety and/or efficacy (as per Article 2 (a) of Directive 2001/20/EC ).
Is treatment intervention a clinical trial?
Although TREATMENT INTERVENTION is the fundamental core principle of clinical trials, “treatment intervention” is never fully or spefically defined in clinical trials legislation ...
Is the assignment of a patient to a particular therapeutic strategy decided in advance by a trial protocol?
The assignment of the patient to a particular therapeutic strategy is not decided in advance by a trial protocol but falls within current practice and the prescription of the medicine is clearly separated from the decision to include the patient in the study.
Is blood draw interventional or clinical?
Common Sense Tells us that a Blood Draw is ‘Interventional’ and if it’s ‘Interventional’ our Study Must be a Clinical Trial. We assume that clinical trials are interventional and therefore anything that is interventional is a clinical trial.
What is non interventional study?
Article 2 of DIR 2001/20/EC defines a “non‑interventional study” as a study where the medical product (s) is (are) prescribed independent to inclusion of the participant in the study and as part of a therapeutic strategy, including diagnostic and monitoring procedures, which is not decided in advance by a study protocol but is applied according to the current clinical practice. As such, these studies seek to understand the use of a marketed product in real-world conditions, including risk/benefit, healthcare resource utilization, and patient/caregiver satisfaction, as examples.
What is low intervention clinical trial?
These trials use authorized drugs (excluding placebos) in accordance with the marketing authorization, or non-authorized drugs, if their use is evidence-based and supported by the published scientific evidence. These trials should not pose more than a minimal additional safety risk or burden to participants compared to normal clinical practice. {7}
What is an unconditional prerequisite for a subject's participation in the study?
An unconditional prerequisite for a subject’s participation in the study is his/her written informed consent. The subject’s written informed consent to participate in the study must be given before any study related activities are carried out.
Who will submit the protocol and any applicable documentation?
The protocol and any applicable documentation (subject information and consent form) will be submitted or notified to the National Health Authorities in accordance with the regulations of the country or countries involved in the study.
What are medical conditions that do not worsen in severity or frequency during the study?
Medical conditions present at study start, that do not worsen in severity or frequency during the study are defined as Baseline medical conditions, and are NOT to be considered AEs.

Clinical Studies
Clinical Trials
- Article 2 of the REG 536/2014 defines a “clinical trial” as a clinical study whose treatment strategies, diagnostic assessments, and clinical monitoring procedures are determined and scheduled in advance by a clinical trial protocol, and do not fall within normal clinical practice. Clinical trials are required before an investigational medicinal product (IMP) is authorized to be c…
Low-Intervention Clinical Trials
- The concept of “low-intervention clinical trial” is first introduced in the upcoming REG 536/2014 and is not part of the DIR 2001/20/EC. These trials use authorized drugs (excluding placebos) in accordance with the marketing authorization, or non-authorized drugs, if their use is evidence-based and supported by the published scientific evidence. These trials should not pose more th…
Non-Interventional Studies
- Article 2 of DIR 2001/20/EC defines a “non‑interventional study” as a study where the medical product(s) is (are) prescribed independent to inclusion of the participant in the study and as part of a therapeutic strategy, including diagnostic and monitoring procedures, which is not decided in advance by a study protocol but is applied according to t...
Conclusion
- Upon implementation of REG 536/2014 in the EU, three different clinical study definitions are to be considered: clinical trial, low-intervention clinical trial, and non-interventional study. Non‑interventional studies are outside the scope of this Regulation, similar to the current DIR 2001/20/EC. With the lack of a harmonized EU regulatory definition for these studies, after the i…
Disclaimer
- The opinions expressed in this paper are the authors’ own and not necessarily shared by their employer.
References
- Regulation (EU) 536/2014 of the European Parliament on Clinical Trials on Medicinal Products for Human Use, and Repealing Directive Directive 2001/20/EC. https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/health/fi...
- Geysels Y, Bamford CA, Corr RH. 2017. The New European Union Regulation for Clinical Trials. Clinical Researcher 31(1):30–7. https://www.acrpnet.org/2017/02/01/the-new-european-unio…
- Regulation (EU) 536/2014 of the European Parliament on Clinical Trials on Medicinal Products for Human Use, and Repealing Directive Directive 2001/20/EC. https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/health/fi...
- Geysels Y, Bamford CA, Corr RH. 2017. The New European Union Regulation for Clinical Trials. Clinical Researcher 31(1):30–7. https://www.acrpnet.org/2017/02/01/the-new-european-union-regulation-for...
- Directive 2001/20/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 April 2001 on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to the i...
- International Council for Harmonization. ICH Harmonized Tripartite Guideline General Consid…