Lesson 1 · Randomized Controlled Trials · Step 7 of 7
From a trial result to policy
When a program can't reach everyone at once, a stepped-wedge trial randomizes the order instead: 34 health centers in Peru began TB contact case finding at random times over 20 months. When a new option is cheaper or easier, a non-inferiority trial asks whether it is worse than the standard by no more than a set margin. Then comes the hard part. Average effects can hide who benefits, and subgroup findings are only convincing when they were planned in advance. And the ORT trials needed decades of implementation, training and advocacy after them to save 50 million lives.
Also covered: stepped-wedge design · non-inferiority and equivalence · subgroup analysis · efficacy, effectiveness and scale-up
Alongside this step
- Slides and transcript — the whole video
- Read the chapter — Randomized Controlled Trials
Check yourself
5 questions, marked as you go. Nothing is recorded as a grade and nothing is locked behind it — if a question catches you out, that is the useful part.
Lesson 1 · 7 steps
Research Designs · lesson 1 of 5