Drug and device trials vary in size, quality: study

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – In an analysis of over 40,000 clinical trials registered in a government database, researchers found that many of those studies — looking at the effects of drugs, devices or behavioral interventions — were small and of inconsistent quality. Those are the studies doctor groups rely on when it comes to setting guidelines about the best evidence for preventing and treating a given disease, according to a report led by Dr. Robert Califf at the Duke Translational Medicine Institute in Durham, North Carolina. But if the evidence comes from small groups of patients in trials with less-than-reliable methods, doctors are left without a lot to work with when developing…

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