Methods of assessing medical treatments

doi:10.1136/bmj.309.6956.741

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A Fontaine,
P Durieux

Unite d'Evaluation, Hospital Louis Mourier, Faculte X Bichat, Paris, France20Delegation a l'Evaluation, Direction de la Prospective et de l'inormation Medicale, Assistance Publique, Hopitaux de Paris, Paris, France.

EDITOR, — We agree with Trevor A Sheldon that randomised clinical trials are one of the most important methods of assessing the merit of medical treatments.1 We question, however, whether they can, by themselves, address successfully two critical challenges that Sheldon identifies: “to provide answers to more clinically relevant questions” and “to get the results of research into practice.”

Quality of care is the extent to which health care is able to achieve those health benefits that science and …