The Gold Standard: What are randomised control trials and why are they important?

Format: Videos
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Language/s: English
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Resource Link: View The Video
Short Description:

A four minute video by the MRC Clinical Trials Unit about the importance of randomised control trials.

Key Concepts addressed:

Details

This four minute video by the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit explains what clinical trials are, what they aim to do and why randomisation is important.

The video covers:

  • The importance of comparing new treatments with current best practice
  • Why randomisation is important to ensure that this is a fair comparison between groups who receive the new treatment and those who receive the comparison
  • This is because randomisation is between groups of patients who are similar to one another
  • How bias might arise if the researchers are able to influence who ends up in which group

Find out more

You can watch other videos about the work of the MRC Clinical Trials Unit on the MRC website.