Most medical practices are not parachutes: a citation analysis of practices felt by biomedical authors to be analogous to parachutes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In a 2003 paper in BMJ, the authors made the tongue-in-cheek observation that there are no randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of parachutes. This paper has been widely read, cited and used to argue that RCTs are impractical or unnecessary for some medical practices. We performed a study to identify and evaluate claims that a medical practice is akin to a parachute.

Methods

Using Google Scholar, we identified all citations to the 2003 paper. We searched for claims that a specific practice was akin to a parachute. For each practice, we identified the desired outcome of the practice, and searched Google Scholar and ClinicalTrials.gov for RCTs that were conducted, ongoing, halted, planned or unpublished.

Results

Of 822 articles citing the original paper

SUBMITTER: Hayes MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5878948 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature