Making best use of existing evidence when planning trials

Making best use of existing evidence when planning trials

Objectives Although meta-analyses are typically viewed as retrospective activities, they are increasingly being applied prospectively to justify planned research by providing up-to-date evidence on specific research questions. Since healthcare policy makers often base decisions on systematic reviews of reliable evidence rather than on single clinical trials, trialists should consider planning a...

Making Best Use of Available Memory When Searching Game Trees

When searching game trees, Algorithm SSS* examines fewer terminal nodes than the alphabiata procedure, but has the disadvantage that the storage space required by it is much greater. ITERSSS* is a modified version of SSS* that does not suffer from this limitation. The memory M that is available for use by the OPEN list can be fed as a parameter to ITERSSS* at run time. For successful operation ...

The Use of Evidence by Decision-Making Committees

Evidence Based Medicine: Clinical Trials

Evidence based medicine is very important for success of modern medicine. It is the ongoing process of using the most reliable evidence from clinical studies, scientific understanding and medical practice to make the best possible medical choice for patients. Evidence based medicine is how medicine advances and how we get improvements in life expectancy and quality of life. It not only identifi...

Best practice: evidence from the clinical trials.

‘What is heart failure?’ is a question that can be addressed from the point of view of the doctor, the health service, and of the patient. From the medical viewpoint, heart failure is where the heart is damaged to the extent that it is no longer an effective pump. There is a pronounced neurohormonal activation, and the affected patient is breathless, tired, and retains fluid and has a poor qual...