Randomised trials of new surgical procedures are necessary

Randomised trials of new procedures: problems and pitfalls.

Randomised trials that compare new procedures with established ones must avoid prerandomisation bias and must allocate patients to treatment groups based on objective or quantitative criteria, not on subjective clinical judgment. Risk, length of follow up, and sample size must be used to calculate the statistical power of the study, so that a significant difference between treatments does not r...

New antiepileptic drug trials in developing countries: are they necessary?

In recent times, antiepileptic drug (AED) development has expanded with at least seven new AEDs being marketed in a variety of countries. However, in this same period there have been very few trials of new AEDs in the developing world where the majority of people with epilepsy reside. There are many problems with the extrapolation of results from AED trials in developed countries, thus underlin...

Randomised Trial Support for Orthopaedic Surgical Procedures

We investigated the proportion of orthopaedic procedures supported by evidence from randomised controlled trials comparing operative procedures to a non-operative alternative. Orthopaedic procedures conducted in 2009, 2010 and 2011 across three metropolitan teaching hospitals were identified, grouped and ranked according to frequency. Searches of the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Tria...

Are some surgical procedures overpaid?

Why are clinical trials necessary in India?

Clinical trials are emerging as an important activity in India as it is an essential component of the drug discovery and development program to which India is committed. The only robust way to evaluate a new medicine is by doing properly designed clinical trials. In addition to advancing science, clinical trials offer myriad benefits to the participants. The recent hue that created in India abo...