Well-conducted randomized clinical trials (RCT) are essential for the objective assessment of the value of new diagnostic or therapeutic medical interventions. They also will give us information about the effect of the intervention on cost and quality of life. Although the RCT was introduced 50 years ago, the requirements to ensure the best possible quality are continuously scrutinized.1–4 That...

BACKGROUND If trials of therapeutic interventions are to serve society's interests, they must be of high methodological quality and must satisfy moral commitments to human subjects. The authors set out to develop a clinical-trials compendium in which standards for the ethical treatment of human subjects are integrated with standards for research methods. METHODS The authors rank-ordered the w...

Meta-analysis of multi-arm trials has been used increasingly in recent years. The aim of meta-analysis for multi-arm trials is to combine evidence from all possible similar studies. In this paper we propose normal approximation models by using empirical logistic transform to compare different treatments in multi-arm trials, allowing studies of both direct and indirect comparisons. Additionally,...

The REACH Forgiveness intervention has been used in psychoeducational groups, couple and individual counseling and psychotherapy, and workbooks. It has been investigated in over 20 randomized clinical trials (RCTs) worldwide. It has been accommodated to treat Christians and shown to be effective in RCTs. But most research has established it to be effective when not accommodating it to religious...

There is currently no International Standard suitable for the standardization of assays of vaccines from the manufacturer. The manufacturer has therefore established a product-specific reference preparation which is traceable to a lot of vaccine shown to be efficacious in clinical trials. This vaccine will serve as a working standard and will be included in all potency tests. The NRA approves t...

This paper briefly describes Jerome Cornfield's approach to Bayesian statistics, his discomfort with frequentist inference, and his contribution to two major clinical trials, the University Group Diabetes Program and the Coronary Drug Project. I mention the role of Bayesian statistics in current randomized clinical trials and conjecture why Cornfield's contributions to Bayesian methods are not ...

Objective(s): Periodontal diseases are among prevalent oral health problems which may ultimately lead to severe complications in oral cavity. Herbal products can be designed as single or multicomponent preparations for better oral health. This study aims to review current clinical trials on the effectiveness of herbal products in gingivitis. Materials and Methods: Electronic databases, includin...