This course covers all the key methodological aspects of clinical trials: the different trial designs, selection of participants, recruitment techniques, choice of interventions, randomisation, blinding (masking), outcome measures, safety, adherence, ethics, regulation, and the challenges of reporting industry-sponsored trials.
This course may seem relevant only to researchers who conduct clinical trials. However, anyone doing health research needs to understand clinical trials, as these are the studies that provide much of the evidence base on the effectiveness of drugs, medical devices, and of surgery and other interventions.
The essentials of running a clinical trial