Читать книгу Applied Biostatistics for the Health Sciences - Richard J. Rossi - Страница 34

Clinical trials can generally be classified as one of the following types of trials:

 Treatment trials that are clinical trials designed to test experimental treatments, new drugs, or new medical approaches or technology.

 Prevention trials that are clinical trials designed to investigate ways to prevent diseases or prevent the recurrence of a disease.

 Screening trials that are clinical trials designed to determine the best way to detect certain diseases or health conditions early on.

 Diagnostic trials that are clinical trials designed to determine tests or procedures that can be used for diagnosing a particular disease or condition.

 Quality-of-life trials that are clinical trials designed to explore ways to improve the comfort and quality of life for individuals with a chronic or terminal disease or condition.

 Genetic trials that are clinical trials designed to investigate the role genetics plays in the detection, diagnosis, or response to a drug or treatment.

Pharmaceutical companies commonly use treatment trials in the development and evaluation of new drugs, epidemiologists generally use prevention, screening, and diagnostic trials in their studies of diseases, public health officials often use quality-of-life trials, and geneticists often use genetic trials for studying tissue or blood samples from families or large groups of people to understand the role of genes in the development of a disease.

The results of a clinical trial are generally published in peer-reviewed scientific or medical journals. The peer-review process is carried out by experts who critically review a research report before it is published. In particular, the peer reviewers are charged with examining the research protocol, analysis, and conclusions drawn in a research report to ensure the integrity and quality of the research that is published. Following the publication of the results of a clinical trial or biomedical research study, further information is generally obtained as new studies are carried out independently by other researchers. The follow-up research is generally designed to validate or expand the previously published results.