A single study rarely provides enough evidence to guide treatment choices in healthcare
Assessments of the relative merits of alternative treatments should be based on systematic reviews of all the relevant, reliable evidence
As in individual studies testing treatments, steps must be taken to reduce the misleading influences of biases and the play of chance
Failure to take account of the findings of systematic reviews has resulted in avoidable harm to patients, and wasted resources in healthcare and research.
Introduction: Is one study ever enough?
The simple answer is ‘hardly ever’. Very seldom will one fair treatment comparison yield sufficiently reliable evidence on which to base a decision about treatment choices.
This section shows why this is a problem and what can be done to address it.
GET-IT provides plain language definitions of health research terms
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