Studies of Medical Outcomes

The randomized controlled trial (RCT) is the de facto standard for studies of the health effects of medical interventions. In these studies, patients are randomized to receive either a therapy to be tested or an alternative (either a placebo or a conventional treatment), and an outcome is measured. RCTs have been used to evaluate therapeutic interventions, including drugs, radiation therapy, and surgical interventions, among others. The measured outcomes vary from hard evidence, such as mortality and morbidity, to softer evidence, such as patient-reported satisfaction and surrogate end points typified by markers of disease activity 

The optimal design of an RCT of a diagnostic test is not always obvious. A classical design is to randomize patients to 

Checklist of items to include when reporting a randomized trial 

PAPER SECTION And topic Item Description Reported on page  

TITLE ABSTRACT 1 How oarticipants were allocated to interventions e.g., random allocation, randomized, or randomiy assigned ).  

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