randomized controlled trial
Type: framework Aliases: rctrandomized controlled trialsRCTsrandomized clinical trialrandomized clinical trials
- Systems Analogy A gold-standard medical experiment comparing a treatment group against a control group chosen by chance.
- Formal Definition Randomized Controlled Trial; a gold-standard clinical study design where participants are randomly assigned to either an experimental group or a placebo/control group to measure treatment efficacy.
Mentioned In
Scientific Sources & Literature Citations
- [1] Empirical Study Guyatt GH, et al. GRADE: an emerging consensus on rating quality of evidence and strength of recommendations. BMJ. 2008;336(7650):924-926. ↗
"Randomization ensures that any differences in outcomes between the treatment and control groups can be attributed to the intervention rather than confounding variables."