Stepped wedge designs are coming of age in clinical epidemiology

An important step toward the coming of age of the stepped wedge design has been the publication of a Stepped Wedge Cluster Randomised Trial extension to CONSORT [1]. This design has definite ethical and logistic advantages so needs to be in the research methods armamentarium. However for this design to be accepted by those making practice and policy decisions it is important that they be reassured that this design has been conducted in a rigorous manner. The development of consensus reporting guidelines is the first step but such guidelines then need to be ‘road-tested’ to ensure their feasibility and accuracy.
Source: Journal of Clinical Epidemiology - Category: Epidemiology Authors: Tags: Editorial Source Type: research