#TrialsTuesday #5 Gold featured as an ineffective treatment for tuberculosis in last week's Trials Tuesday. This week, I feature a person who shares the name of the element - Harry Gold – to illustrate the history of the "double blind" trial. 1/8 #DoubleBlind #HistoryofMedicine

#TrialsTuesday #4 The last TrialsTuesday was the MRC trial of streptomycin for TB that used random numbers to fill envelopes which, when opened, revealed a patient’s assigned treatment. But, what about using a more familiar method for using chance to choose between options: flipping a coin? 1/8

Whether or not you've read the first two of Robert Matthews' trio of articles on the problematic history of randomised trials, have a look at the third now. It discusses Donald Mainland, Austin Bradford Hill and the future of randomised trials www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/the... #rct #ebhc #ebm

On this day in 1868, Felix Hoffmann, who synthesized aspirin in 1897, was born. Today, you can learn about fair tests of treatments through history by reading Peter Elwood's account of the first randomized trial of the drug for people having a heart attack. 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/the...

TrialsTuesday #3 Last #TrialsTuesday, I featured the #MRC 1944 trial showing that patulin was not effective for treating the common cold. Today, it’s a more famous MRC trial from the same decade: streptomycin for pulmonary tuberculosis, published in the BMJ on 30 October 1948. 1/8 @bmj.com

Whether or not you looked at the first of Robert Matthews' trio of articles on the problematic history of randomised trials last week, try the second 👇about Austin Bradford Hill’s “pragmatic” view of randomisation and its origins www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/the... #HistoryOfMedicine #RCT

#TrialsTuesday #2 Last week, I reminded you of my trial of oranges and lemons for scurvy. This week, it’s something from a mould that grows on apples, which was tested as a treatment for the common cold nearly 200 years later in the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) 1944 trial of patulin. 1/8

#TrialsTuesday #1 On this first Tuesday of 2026, I’m relaunching Trials Tuesday to illustrate the development of fair tests of treatment through history, featuring important clinical trials. I begin with my study of scurvy on board the Salisbury. 1/8 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/who...

Start the new year with the first of Robert Matthews' trio of articles on the problematic history of randomised trials, illustrating the challenges of presumption and confusion on the road to randomisation. Read it for free here 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/the... #RCT #HistoryOfMedicine

In the article she wrote for me about tuberculosis and streptomycin in the UK in 1948, @hildabast.bsky.social describes how #GeorgeOrwell was admitted to Hairmyres Hospital in Scotland on #ChristmasEve 1947, with infectious chronic tuberculosis in his lungs 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/dow...

Nice to see this recognition of the good friend of the James Lind Library, the late Doug Altman. Learn more about his prescience in recognizing the need to reduce biases before tackling imprecision in systematic reviews, in this article by Iain Chalmers 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/dou...

Listen in as @richard-lehman.bsky.social and @raj-mehta.bsky.social explore why it took so long for fair tests of treatments to develop, and the transition from anecdotal and authority-based decisions to empirical methodologies in the 18th and 19th centuries. www.jameslindlibrary.org/blogs/the-fi...

#CochraneDaily As we approach the end of 2025, have a read of this landmark 30-year old article providing empirical evidence of how poor allocation concealment was associated with #bias in the results of randomised trials jameslindlibrary.org/wp-data/uplo... @jama.com @jameslindlibrary.bsky.social

Did you know that there's a Christmas Card Day? It's today: www.daysoftheyear.com/days/christm... ? However, sending Christmas cards to trial participants won't help reduce bias by retaining them, as shown in one of my records 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/coleman-e-ar... @trialforge.bsky.social

Ahoy! Here's a new article that illustrates the development of risk of bias assessments in systematic reviews, through history.

Ahoy! Learn more about Cochrane and other systematic reviews through history, in one of my articles 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/his...

Ahoy! If you're interested in citation bias, there's more in this article in the James Lind Library www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/cit...

On World Pneumonia Day (stoppneumonia.org/latest/world...), learn about controlled trials through history by reading Scott Podolsky's article about trials of treatments for pneumonia in the 1920s 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/jes... #WorldPneumoniaDay #Pneumonia #MedHist

On Halloween, I recommend reading Anthony' Petrosino's appreciation of statistician Fred Mosteller, including how Fred invoked #Halloween in providing comments on one of his draft articles 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/cha...

On #WorldStrokeDay (www.world-stroke.org/world-stroke...), learn about the disconnect between pre-clinical and clinical research and the role of CAMARADES in this article that Merel Ritskes-Hoitinga and Pandora Pound wrote for me 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/the... #EBM #EBHC

Remind yourself of the value of the randomised trial on #WorldPolioDay through a history of the Salk #polio vaccine trial, which showed the vaccine's benefits 50 years ago journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... Read more by Harry Marks in my library www.jameslindlibrary.org www.who.int/europe/campa...

Ahoy! If you would like to see some other articles that illustrate the recent history of individual participant data meta-analyses, click on this link www.jameslindlibrary.org?s=individual and scroll down through my records.

On #WorldSightDay learn about the development of fair tests of treatment though history in the late Bill Silverman's reflections on his 1950s randomised trial of using adrenocorticotropic hormone for retinopathy of prematurity 👇 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/per... #LoveYourEyes #RCT #EBM #EBHC

Ahoy! You can learn more about the history of systematic reviews and meta-analysis in the article that Mike Clarke wrote for me in 2015 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/his... #EvidenceSynthesis #EBM #EBHC

Marking the sad news of Drummond Rennie's death, a tribute has been added here www.jameslindlibrary.org/flanagin-a-g... Also, Drummond and Iain Chalmers wrote about the dangers of medical reviews and textbooks that ignore scientific principles here www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/exp... @jama.com

If you'd like to learn about the development of randomised trials in education through history, read my new article from Carole Torgerson about the first use of randomisation in educational research www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/whe... #RCT #FairTests #EducationalResearch #History #Randomized

100 years ago today, the British Medical Journal published Moir's study of the narcotic effects of two hyoscines using alternation to form comparable groups. It's at www.jameslindlibrary.org/moir-jc-1925 illustrating the development of fair tests of treatment through history @bmj.com

Ahoy! If you'd like to watch an interview between Cindy and Iain Chalmers recorded about 30 years ago, it starts 1:38 into the video at radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/items/...

Ahoy! You might also be interested in reading the piece Dave Sackett wrote for me about why he became a clinician trialist. It's available free here: www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/why... #RandomizedTrials #DaveSackett #EBM

Read the new commentary that Christian Gluud and Kristian Thorlund wrote for me about Klim McPherson’s article on sequential analysis of trial data, which was published more than half a century (51 years) ago www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/lon... #TSA #TrialSequentialAnalysis #RCT

On World Mosquito Day (www.worldmosquitoprogram.org/world-mosqui...), what better way to learn about clinical trials through history than reading the article Silvio Garattini wrote for me about early 20th century controlled trials to prevent malaria in Italy www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/ita...

Ahoy! With the publication of the new SPIRIT guidance on reporting protocols for randomised trials, read about the history of reporting guidelines in the article that Doug Altman and Iveta Simera wrote for me in 2015 www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/a-h... #SPIRIT #RCT @equatornetwork.bsky.social‬

Ahoy! 40 years since #BackToTheFuture, use the James Lind Library to learn about randomised trials through history, including 1985 trial from the #WHO testing coronary heart disease prevention in 50,000 men from 66 factories in Belgium, Italy, Poland & UK www.jameslindlibrary.org/kornitzer-m-...

On #International#PineappleDay www.nationaldaycalendar.com/internationa... have a look at my record for a @jama.com article from 99 years ago in which George Minot & William Murphy describe a diet (that included #pineapple) for treating pernicious anaemia www.jameslindlibrary.org/minot-gr-mur...

On #Red4Research Day, visit my website at JamesLindLibrary.org to learn about the development of fair tests of treatment through history

1/3 On Friday 13th, here's some things you might like to read about the effects of chance in research.... #FridayThe13th #FairTests

Following the discovery of papers showing Churchill's concerns about the availability of #penicillin during WW2 www.bbc.com/news/article..., read the article Ben Toth wrote for me about some of the research that showed the drug's remarkable benefits www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/pio... #BBC #WW2

On #WorldBicycleDay (www.un.org/en/observanc...), have a look at this trial from 50 years ago (yes, half a century!) that randomised participants to a control group or 20 weeks of running, walking or cycling for 30 minutes three times a week pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1152627/ #Exercise #RCT

#TrialsTuesday #9 In recent weeks, Trials Tuesday has highlighted some small, practice changing trials. In contrast, today’s trial is one that was described as “massive” by Keith Veronese in Making Medicine. It was called ISIS-2. 1/8

Ahoy! Congratulations to DAMOCLES on its 20th anniversary. Peter Armitage reflected on earlier years of data monitoring committees in his interview with Iain Chalmers: www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/the... Another example of seeing the development of fair tests of treatment through history

#TrialsTuesday #8 1/8 On #InternationalClinicalTrialsDay 2025, we feature STAMPEDE, a trial that started in 2005 and announced its first practice changing results 10 years ago today, to the American Society of Oncology ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/... @ascocancer.bsky.social‬ @mrcctu.bsky.social‬

Welcome to the James Lind Library, illustrating the development of fair tests of treatments through history. We have more than 1200 primary historical Records, 280 Articles, and multilingual Essays, along with podcasts, videos and quizzes. All content is free at www.jameslindlibrary.org

On International Clinical Trials Day, you can learn more about me and what I achieved in the article that was written by Iain Milne www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/who... #InternationalClinicalTrialsDay #BePartOfResearch

#TrialsTuesday #7. Today, I’ll take you more than 100 years further back in time than my trial of scurvy. I’ll share with you a proposal for a study that highlighted the need for fair tests when a common treatment might do more harm than good #FairTest #TestingTreatments 1/8

May 13 2025: 10th anniversary of death of Dave Sackett. Read extended questions & answers he prepared shortly before his death to describe his multiple careers, importance of fair tests and evidence-based medicine www.jameslindlibrary.org/sackett-dl-2... @cebmoxford.bsky.social #EBM #EBHC #Cochrane

Ahoy! Read more about the benefits of trial registration in my article by Kay Dickersin and Iain Chalmers, including their discussion of John Simes' 1986 call for an international registry of clinical trials www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/rec... Simes 1986: www.jameslindlibrary.org/simes-rj-1986/

#TrialsTuesday #6 Harry Gold, featured in the last #TrialsTuesday for his work on double blind trials of angina. Another important trial for this condition tested a surgical procedure, internal mammary artery ligation, by comparing it to “sham surgery” 1/8

On #WorldMalariaDay visit my website to learn about the use of fair tests to identify effective treatments through history, including a recent article discussing artemisinin (Qinghaosu) as part of the history of trials in #China www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/the... www.who.int/campaigns/wo...

Ahoy! Want to learn more about blinded outcome assessment through history? Read my essay at www.jameslindlibrary.org/essays-essay... #DoubleBlind #EBHC #EBM #RCT #FairTests