Are Randomized Clinical Trials Obsolete?

April 2020 will mark the 40th anniversary of Jay Herson’s paper “Patient Registration in a Cooperative Oncology Group”. That paper, published in the first volume of the journal Controlled Clinical Trials, dealt with sources of bias and randomization practices that existed at the time. Looking back, it is surprising to see how much has changed since 1980. Whilst randomization remains a key design feature for confirmatory trials aimed at new drug approval, many innovative non-randomized study designs have been proposed and used in recent years.

This symposium will address the sources of bias that continue to threaten sound clinical research now and in the foreseeable future. Past achievements and the current landscape will be described along with realistic proposals to move the field forward. Read Symposium outline here.