BACKGROUND Metformin is widely used to treat gestational diabetes (GDM), but many women remain hyperglycaemic and require additional therapy. We aimed to determine recruitment rate and participant throughput in a randomised trial of glibenclamide compared with standard therapy insulin (added to maximum tolerated metformin) for treatment of GDM. METHODS We conducted an open label feasibility s...

BACKGROUND Obesity treatment is notoriously unsuccessful and one of the barriers to successful weight loss reported by patients is a lack of social support. The Internet offers a novel and fast approach to the delivery of health information, enabling 24-hour access to help and advice. However, much of the health information available on the Internet is unregulated or not written by qualified he...

BACKGROUND Prevention of alcohol, drug and tobacco misuse by young people is a key public health priority. There is a need to develop the evidence base through rigorous evaluations of innovative approaches to substance misuse prevention. The Strengthening Families Programme 10-14 is a universal family-based alcohol, drugs and tobacco prevention programme, which has achieved promising results in...

Introduction: Various conservative treatments for first carpometacarpal joint osteoarthritis have been reported. We aim to investigate the short-term effectiveness of conservative management interventions used to improve pain and function for adults with first carpometacarpal joint arthritis in a randomised controlled trial. Methods: A pragmatic 2 2 factorial randomised controlled trial will be...

Randomised trials are at the heart of evidence-based healthcare, but the methods and infrastructure for conducting these sometimes complex studies are largely evidence free. Trial Forge ( www.trialforge.org ) is an initiative that aims to increase the evidence base for trial decision making and, in doing so, to improve trial efficiency.This paper summarises a one-day workshop held in Edinburgh ...

BACKGROUND The conventional view that participants in randomised controlled trials sacrifice themselves for the good of future patients is challenged by increasing evidence to suggest that individual patients benefit from participation in trials. OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that trial participants receive higher quality care and, as a consequence, have better outcomes than patients recei...

Accepted 24 June 2007 ABSTRACT Objective: A study was undertaken to answer the question: ‘‘For those ambulatory patients who attend the emergency department, does routinely measuring their blood pressure and providing written information about hypertension and advising them to see their general practitioner if indicated, compared with no measurement or advice, lead to subsequent interventions (...