BACKGROUND The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) can be one of the most stressful hospital environments. Alongside providing intensive clinical care, it is important that parents have the opportunity for regular physical contact with their babies because the neonatal period is critical for parent-child bonding. At present, monitoring technology in the NICU requires multiple wired sensors to t...

In this issue of the Journal, Black et al. (1) present an important analysis of methodologic pitfalls associated with randomized studies of screening interventions. The authors compare disease-specific and all-cause mortality from the 12 published randomized trials of cancer screening for which these end points were available. In seven of the 12 studies, major inconsistencies were detected in t...

Patients 205 patients (258 enrollments) who were >18 years of age (mean age 51 y, 63% men, 50% white) and had an out-of-hospital diagnosis of status epilepticus. Exclusion criteria included pulse < 60 beats/minute, systolic blood pressure < 100 mm Hg, and a history of long-term use of or sensitivity to benzodiazepines. Only data from the first enrollment of each patient was reported. {Follow-up...

and Commentary also published in ACP Journal Club. 1996; 12 5:80. on the marginal costs and effectiveness of each step along the treatment algorithm were not reported. Therefore, the study is more valuable in relation to the mode of treatment delivery than for details about the treatment itself. Pharoah and HoUingvrorth concentrate on variations in effectiveness and cost among different treatme...

et al. Randomized clinical trial of three-layer paste and four-layer bandages for venous leg ulcers. Q Are 3 layer paste bandages as effective as 4 layer bandages for healing of venous leg ulcers? METHODS Design: randomised controlled trial. Setting: a hospital leg ulcer outpatient clinic in London, UK. Patients: 133 patients (56% men) with venous leg ulcers. Exclusion criteria: arterial diseas...

Simonsohn (2015) proposed to use effect sizes of high powered replications to evaluate whether lower powered original studies could have obtained the reported effect. His focus on sample size misses that effect size comparisons are informative with regard to a theoretical question only when the replications (i) successfully realize the theoretical variable of interest, which (ii) usually requir...