The two factors that affect enrollment of participants and the process of intervention in randomizedcontrolled pragmatic trials are similar to the situation of clinical practice, thus its effects are similar to the situation ofclinical practice. Therefore, when one estimates an intervention’s effect on a patient, it will be more similar to a real clinicalsituation than results taken from an explanatory trial. Due to the introduction of interventions and process variables usedin a pragmatic trial that conform to traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture practices, more and more interest isgrowing among researchers in the traditional Chinese medicine field. This article introduces the principles and conceptsof the pragmatic trial, and the key points of design via some samples.
Data management system is a major factor affecting the quality of clinical trial. Development of data management system include a steering group and data safety and monitoring board, data collection, database, performance of the data safety and monitoring, as well as locking of database. This article provides key issues of the five parts so as to help researchers understand the clinical trial data management system.
Clinical trial transparency, include clinical trial registration, unbiased reporting results and sharing individual participant data (IPD), is one of the most important revolutionary concepts following clinical epidemiology and evidence-based medicine in the medical field. Sharing IPD is a medical ethics issue reflected a new sense of worth and constructing new rules of clinical trials. Our viewpoint is that from the essential purpose of clinical research, IPD is a social public property. Sharing IPD is a one of the best ways for respecting the contributions of the participants, and one of the keys for changing face of clinical trials.
The concept of clinical trial transparency has been promoted for more than 40 years. The act of clinical trial registration, report guidelines development, and data sharing has has been strongly pushed forward and become a common practice. The clinical trial process being the key procedure of trial operation and quality control, determines the accuracy of the results. However, the process report of clinical trials is insufficient. In this article, we summarize the importance of clinical trial process report and provide corresponding suggestions. We propose that medical journals, reporting guidelines developers and clinical trial registration platforms should work together to strengthen the process report of clinical trials and promote full transparency of clinical trials.
With the encouragement of national policy on drug and medical device innovation, multi-center clinical trials and multi-regional clinical trials are facing an unprecedented opportunity in China. Trials with a multi-center design are far more common at present than before. However, it should be recognized there still exists shortcomings in current multi-center trials. In this paper, we summarize the problems and challenges and provide corresponding resolutions with the aim to reduce heterogeneity between study centers and avoid excessive center effects in treatment. It is urgent to develop design, implementation and reporting guidelines to improve the overall quality of multi-center clinical trials.
Using Chinese Materia Medica (CM) as injections is an innovation that is proving effective in extensive clinical use in Mainland China. However, recent reports have focused on adverse reactions, ignoring the considerable successes of these preparations. In order to achieve balance in the media and in the minds of the public, we suggest the first step is to clarify the concepts of and differences between adverse drug reactions (ADR) and adverse events (AE) for all concerned—the public, medical practitioners, government officials, and lawmakers. Second, the State Food and Drug Administration should raise the requirements for Chinese Medicine Injection (CMI) registration and license approval and emphasize the importance of evidence-based CMI development and evidence-based CMI license approval. Thirdly, drug companies and institutions should reinforce basic research about the quality control of herbs and CMI-drug interactions. Fourth, the Government should clarify the legal responsibilities for CMI approval agencies, CMI developers, medical doctors, and patients. Fifth, the medical association and Government should enhance training for health care professionals concerning the usage of CMIs. And finally sixth, State Food and Drug Administration should monitor the content and quality of the directions for use of CMI.
Evidence produced by clinical trial is the main basis for health care decision-making at all levels. In recent years, some problems been revealed in the national data audit of new drug clinical trials have sounded the alarm for the quality of clinical research in China. In addition to strengthening the implementation of clinical trial process management and supervision, we call attention to the coherence and consistency of trial design and implementation, including the promotion of clinical trial design in the agenda of improving the quality of the trials and putting forward reasonable suggestions. We hope that our work could make research ideas clear from the source of a clinical trial, with a view to avoid violating protocol behavior and provide standardized recommendations for improving the quality of clinical trials in China.
