Making clinical trials more relevant: improving and validating the PRECIS tool for matching trial design decisions to trial purpose.

ABSTRACT:

Background

If you want to know which of two or more healthcare interventions is most effective, the randomised controlled trial is the design of choice. Randomisation, however, does not itself promote the applicability of the results to situations other than the one in which the trial was done. A tool published in 2009, PRECIS (PRagmatic Explanatory Continuum Indicator Summaries) aimed to help trialists design trials that produced results matched to the aim of the trial, be that supporting clinical decision-making, or increasing knowledge of how an intervention works. Though generally positive, groups evaluating the tool have also found weaknesses, mainly that its inter-rater reliability is not clear, that it needs a scoring system and that some new domains might be needed. The aim

SUBMITTER: Loudon K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3748822 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature