Clinical Trials Overview: From Explanatory to Pragmatic Clinical Trials

Clinical trials have been the bedrock of research to evaluate the safety and efficacy of new medical, surgical, or other interventions. Traditional “explanatory” clinical trials have aimed to explain a biological cause (new treatment) and effect (patient outcome) while controlling for many factors that might impact the evaluation, such as restricted eligibility criteria, frequent follow-up visits, and multiple clinical and laboratory measur es. Despite the benefits of a well-controlled clinical trial, compromises have been made that can limit who might benefit from a new intervention, can increase complexity of the conduct of a trial, or that lead to excessively long durations of trials.
Source: Mayo Clinic Proceedings - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Tags: Thematic Review on Forward Thinking on Clinical Trials in Clinical Practice Source Type: research