Real world COPD study may be better way to evaluate drug treatments

A real world controlled effectiveness study carried out in unselected patients from UK general practices provides a better way of evaluating drug treatments for use in routine clinical care than standard randomised controlled trials, say the authors of a study in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).1

The Salford Lung Study randomly assigned 2799 patients with COPD to a once daily inhaled combination of fluticasone-furoate and vilanterol or to usual care. The patients were recruited from 75 general practices in Salford …