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

< Back to search results

• Format Videos
• Language/s English
• Target Audience Self-directed learning
• EBM Stage 0 - Why EBM?
• Duration <5 mins
• Difficulty Introductory

Key Concepts addressed

• 2-1a Comparison groups should be similar
• 2-1d People should not know which treatment they get
• 1-2e Comparisons are needed to identify treatment effects

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.