BMJ  2004;328 (6 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7439.0-e

Drug policy trials can be randomised

Randomised drug policy trials are feasible, and they may produce results in a short time, which are likely to concord with observational evaluations. Schneeweiss and colleagues (p 560) compared results of studies investigating the health effects of a new reimbursement policy for nebulised respiratory drugs. The randomised policy trial and an observational time trend analysis had similar results. Randomised policy trials provide rigorous results almost as soon as the data become available, avoiding the time delay caused by identifying controls and adjusting for confounding.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Clinical and economic consequences of a reimbursement restriction of nebulised respiratory therapy in adults: direct comparison of randomised and observational evaluations

Sebastian Schneeweiss, Malcolm Maclure, Bruce Carleton, Robert J Glynn, and Jerry Avorn
BMJ 2004 328: 560. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Online poll

Find out more here>> and here>>