Hey guys, I didn't see anything on this topic so far, so I thought I'd give you some quick info on how I've made most of my "free" money for the past five years. This forum has given me several ideas for making money without really working, so if I can help one person make a quick buck, I'll be satisfied.
I live in the Baltimore/DC metro area, a huge area of biomedical research. There are both government and private researchers willing to throw money at people for their clinical trials and studies. These can run the gamut of questionnaires to month-long inpatient stays at area hospitals while they monitor your body for the effects of novel immunosuppressants...or even malaria.
The niche I've thoroughly explored is that of MRI scans, which usually consist of trying not to fall asleep for a couple hours, or, if you're lucky, FALLING asleep for a few hours. In 2008, 2009 and 2011, I was frequenting NIDA at Hopkins Bayview in Baltimore so much that the staff knew as much about my life and future plans as some of my friends did. I just went to a health screening for a new study, which should be wrapping up in time for me to leave the country. This study is five visits lasting 7-8 hours at $20 per hour, with a $200 completion bonus. This is actually quite low to what I am used to. Typically, studies which involve single day visits that last from 3-5 hours usually pay at a rate closer to 30-50 per hour.
For example, in 2011 I was part of a study at NIDA where I ended up making about $2800 over 5 weeks for what amounted to roughly $45 per hour. This was 1 or 2 visits per week. This past fall, I participated in 3 small studies at NIH in Bethesda, which were just an hour of my time total, and paid between 70-100 bucks each.
Obviously, the greater risk you put your body in, the greater the monetary reward. The big study I mentioned above required me to take a pill twice per day. It was either Chantix or a placebo. At this time, I believe Chantix was being implicated in heart problems. Naturally, I just popped the pills out and tossed them between visits. Now, you may be required to record a video of yourself taking the study medication each day, but I'm sure any moderately intelligent guy could figure out how to trick them.
Even more risky and lucrative are the private companies. Parexel runs trials here in Baltimore on developmental drugs that usually haven't been approved by the FDA yet. Personally, I wouldn't touch these. You could luck out and get into a cohort with a very low dosing of the drug, but you have no control over this. These typically pay several thousand dollars and require inpatient stays, usually from 7 to 14 days.
MRI studies should be bountiful at any location performing clinical trials. You may see these labeled as fMRI in some instances, where the f stands for functional. These scans have you performing (often) repetitive tasks on a monitor while you are in the scanner. Many times there is some sort of gambling task, where you can substantially increase your earnings based on how well you perform. I had a two hour scan with a base pay of 100 bucks, which I increased to 150 because I was good at clicking a button and not taking a nap. If you are in the same area as me, check out-
http://researchstudies.drugabuse.gov/
They mainly do studies on drug abuse, but always have a control group of healthy volunteers. For the rest (majority) of you-
http://clinicaltrials.gov/
Type in whatever study type you are interested in, plus your city. It's actually a great search engine. For those with a high pain threshold, try out marrow donations. I haven't done it before, but they pay highly for your time/pain investment. If you guys have any questions about whoring your bodies out to science, let me know.
I live in the Baltimore/DC metro area, a huge area of biomedical research. There are both government and private researchers willing to throw money at people for their clinical trials and studies. These can run the gamut of questionnaires to month-long inpatient stays at area hospitals while they monitor your body for the effects of novel immunosuppressants...or even malaria.
The niche I've thoroughly explored is that of MRI scans, which usually consist of trying not to fall asleep for a couple hours, or, if you're lucky, FALLING asleep for a few hours. In 2008, 2009 and 2011, I was frequenting NIDA at Hopkins Bayview in Baltimore so much that the staff knew as much about my life and future plans as some of my friends did. I just went to a health screening for a new study, which should be wrapping up in time for me to leave the country. This study is five visits lasting 7-8 hours at $20 per hour, with a $200 completion bonus. This is actually quite low to what I am used to. Typically, studies which involve single day visits that last from 3-5 hours usually pay at a rate closer to 30-50 per hour.
For example, in 2011 I was part of a study at NIDA where I ended up making about $2800 over 5 weeks for what amounted to roughly $45 per hour. This was 1 or 2 visits per week. This past fall, I participated in 3 small studies at NIH in Bethesda, which were just an hour of my time total, and paid between 70-100 bucks each.
Obviously, the greater risk you put your body in, the greater the monetary reward. The big study I mentioned above required me to take a pill twice per day. It was either Chantix or a placebo. At this time, I believe Chantix was being implicated in heart problems. Naturally, I just popped the pills out and tossed them between visits. Now, you may be required to record a video of yourself taking the study medication each day, but I'm sure any moderately intelligent guy could figure out how to trick them.
Even more risky and lucrative are the private companies. Parexel runs trials here in Baltimore on developmental drugs that usually haven't been approved by the FDA yet. Personally, I wouldn't touch these. You could luck out and get into a cohort with a very low dosing of the drug, but you have no control over this. These typically pay several thousand dollars and require inpatient stays, usually from 7 to 14 days.
MRI studies should be bountiful at any location performing clinical trials. You may see these labeled as fMRI in some instances, where the f stands for functional. These scans have you performing (often) repetitive tasks on a monitor while you are in the scanner. Many times there is some sort of gambling task, where you can substantially increase your earnings based on how well you perform. I had a two hour scan with a base pay of 100 bucks, which I increased to 150 because I was good at clicking a button and not taking a nap. If you are in the same area as me, check out-
http://researchstudies.drugabuse.gov/
They mainly do studies on drug abuse, but always have a control group of healthy volunteers. For the rest (majority) of you-
http://clinicaltrials.gov/
Type in whatever study type you are interested in, plus your city. It's actually a great search engine. For those with a high pain threshold, try out marrow donations. I haven't done it before, but they pay highly for your time/pain investment. If you guys have any questions about whoring your bodies out to science, let me know.
Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language. And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.
