Evidence-based Medicine (EBM) is based to a large extent on the results of randomised clinical trials. During this course, which is primarily intended for clinicians and other health care professionals with an interest in EBM, participants will learn how to critically appraise reports on clinical trials in published major journals.
Using published data, professor Lubsen will illustrate the various trial designs that may occur, and how the effects of intervention can best be quantified. As will be shown by hands-on exercises using a spreadsheet program, essential parameters that are missing in publications (such as absolute event-rates) can often be estimated from the data that are given in a publication. Advanced topics to be covered are the relevance of cause-of-death competition for effect estimation and meta-analysis, the pros and cons of combined end-points and the design and analysis of cross-over trials. Alternatives to randomisation may be covered briefly.
Objective
- Ability to appraise published reports on clinical trials critically.
Please note that this course covers the same materials as professor Lubsen’s “Clinical Trials” in the NIHES-course Clinical Epidemiology (CE02).