From the theoretical to the practical: how to evaluate the ethical and scientific justifications of randomized clinical trials

We commend Shamy and Fedyk for their thoughtful commentary [1] on the ethical and scientific justification for clinical trials and accompanying cross-sectional study of De Meulemeester et  al. [2]. We generally agree with the three proposed criteria for ethical justification of randomized control trials (RCTs): nonredundancy, scientific plausibility, and methodological rigor. Yet, these criteria are broad, and moreover, the end users (eg, ethical review boards [ERBs], funders, or bo th) and practical implementation of this framework in practice are not entirely clear.
Source: Journal of Clinical Epidemiology - Category: Epidemiology Authors: Tags: Letter to the Editor Source Type: research