Editing Evidence-based medicine (section)

=== Quality of clinical trials ===
Evidence-based medicine attempts to objectively evaluate the quality of clinical research by critically assessing techniques reported by researchers in their publications.
* Trial design considerations: High-quality studies have clearly defined eligibility criteria and have minimal missing data.<ref name=":03">{{Cite journal |last1=Bellomo |first1=Rinaldo |last2=Bagshaw |first2=Sean M. |date=2006 |title=Evidence-based medicine: classifying the evidence from clinical trials—the need to consider other dimensions |journal=Critical Care |volume=10 |issue=5 |pages=232 |doi=10.1186/cc5045 |issn=1466-609X |pmc=1751050 |pmid=17029653 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Greeley |first=Christopher |date=December 2016 |title=Demystifying the Medical Literature |journal=Academic Forensic Pathology |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=556–567 |doi=10.23907/2016.055 |issn=1925-3621 |pmc=6474497 |pmid=31239931}}</ref>
* Generalizability considerations: Studies may only be applicable to narrowly defined patient populations and may not be generalizable to other clinical contexts.<ref name=":03"/>
* Follow-up: Sufficient time for defined outcomes to occur can influence the prospective study outcomes and the [[statistical power]] of a study to detect differences between a treatment and control arm.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Akobeng |first=A. K. |date=August 2005 |title=Understanding randomised controlled trials |journal=Archives of Disease in Childhood |volume=90 |issue=8 |pages=840–844 |doi=10.1136/adc.2004.058222 |issn=1468-2044 |pmc=1720509 |pmid=16040885}}</ref>
* Power: A mathematical calculation can determine whether the number of patients is sufficient to detect a difference between treatment arms. A negative study may reflect a lack of benefit, or simply a lack of sufficient quantities of patients to detect a difference.<ref name=":2"/><ref name=":03"/><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2007 |title=Statistical Power |url=http://www.bandolier.org.uk/booth/glossary/statpow.html |website=Bandolier}}</ref>