16.07.2020, 12:28

Compare what has never been compared before?

Drugs or medical interventions are usually compared head-to-head in randomized controlled trials to identify the better option for treatment. Nowadays, multiple treatment options are available in many...   mehr

17.07.2019, 16:28

“White lies” in expert interviews – please me, please

In all topics related to medicine, expert interviews are extremely valuable to understand the complexly linked decisions that decide about the fate of medicines and medical devices in the market. The value...   mehr

06.07.2018, 10:46

Citing good news

Contrary to the public media, scientific authors seem to prefer good news over bad ones. They cite studies with positive results significantly more often than studies reporting to have found nothing new. Is...   mehr

20.09.2017, 15:12

Sharing clinical trial data – does it foster transparency or research parasitism?

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors’ (ICMJE) plan for mandatory sharing of clinical trial data as prerequisite for publication in medical journals¹ triggered mixed responses from the...   mehr

13.01.2017, 12:44

Who's not sharing their trial results?

The November 8^th issue of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) features an article titled “60 seconds on TrialsTracker”. TrialsTracker is a website that reports the...   mehr

29.03.2016, 13:14

More precision by more digits?

Precision is always good, isn´t it? Especially in science, accurate and precise data and calculations are absolutely essential. But most of us might also have a feeling of “too much precision” when our pocket...   mehr

11.08.2015, 12:07

Some thoughts about advisory boards

Are you involved in the organisation or conduction of advisory boards? If so, from time to time you may wonder whether the results are proportionate to the money and time invested. Here are some thoughts about...   mehr

24.07.2015, 14:28

Where to find “real evidence”

An essay in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine by Alpers et al. (J R Soc Med 2015; 108: 8–10) titled “Evolution of evidence-based medicine to detect evidence mutations” seems to attach evolutionary...   mehr

26.02.2015, 11:59

How to assess/judge the relevance and quality of a metaanalysis

Assessing the relevance of a metaanalysis or any other systematic review, is no trivial task. Ultimately, its quality depends on the reliability of the included studies and a reasonable selection of studies...   mehr

26.01.2015, 10:24

Hard endpoints – weak message?

Everybody wants them, few have them – the „hard endpoints“ in clinical studies. What are these “hard endpoints” and is being “hard” relevant for endpoints that are used for developing messages from studies?...   mehr