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Heroes and martyrs of quality and safety
Quality improvement research: are randomised trials necessary?
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  • Published on: 13 May 2016
    Randomized trials are necessary in quality improvement
    • Per Winkel, senior researcher
    • Other Contributors:
      • Gluud Christian

    Recently Neuhauser and Dias raised an important question [1]: are randomised clinical trials (RCT) necessary in quality improvement?

    They conclude that “RCTs need to be embedded in generalized replicatable theory. Otherwise it is a scientific house without foundation” and argue that RCTs comparing drugs cannot be replicated for two reasons: (1) after a decade or two the control arm has changed and (2) replicati...

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    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.