Conveying Equipoise during Recruitment for Clinical Trials: Qualitative Synthesis of Clinicians' Practices across Six Randomised Controlled Trials.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are essential for evidence-based medicine and increasingly rely on front-line clinicians to recruit eligible patients. Clinicians' difficulties with negotiating equipoise is assumed to undermine recruitment, although these issues have not yet been empirically investigated in the context of observable events. We aimed to investigate how clinicians conveyed equipoise during RCT recruitment appointments across six RCTs, with a view to (i) identifying practices that supported or hindered equipoise communication and (ii) exploring how clinicians' reported intentions compared with their actual practices.

Methods and findings

Six pragmatic UK-based RCTs were purposefully selected to include several clinical specialties (e.g., oncology,

SUBMITTER: Rooshenas L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5068710 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature