NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THE CONDUCT AND MANAGEMENT OF MULTICENTER TRIALS - AN INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF CLINICAL-TRIAL UNITS

There is an urgent need for the performance of more, better designed, and better managed randomized clinical trials. After visits to 43 lead ing organizations and units involved in clinical trials in Europe and North America during 1993, the way of conducting randomized clinical t rials was analyzed. By using a structured questionnaire, information o n recent improvements in the way randomized clinical trials are perfor med was identified. These developments encompass human aspects (better information, collaboration, and communication) as well as non-human a spects (press button phone randomization and data management systems). By employing such developments, randomized clinical trials can run mu ch more efficiently. This facilitates faster and better answers to the questions addressed by randomized clinical trials, thereby also makin g them more ethical.