5/5 We are long over due it being time to act to answer Doug Altman's call from 31 years ago for "less research, better research, and research done for the right reasons". www.bmj.com/content/308/... trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.... @streweek.bsky.social

Don't miss out on your chance to attend this years #Edinburgh #ClinicalTrial Management Course on 06 & 07 Nov 2025- Register here edin.ac/3RGb0mB #ECTMC25 @streweek.bsky.social @bleedingstroke.bsky.social @ace-aberdeen.bsky.social @merrij.bsky.social

From 1st Jan 2026 the journal Trials will mandate that authors present information about the age, sex, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and geographical location of expected and actual participants in their protocols and trial results. trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

📣 Our @streweek.bsky.social is lead author on an editorial in #Trials outlining a new mandate in the journal - mandating the reporting of six key participant characteristics in any protocol/trial report submitted to Trials on or after 1st Jan 2026. 1/2 trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

From 1st Jan 2026, the journal Trials will mandate reporting of (at least) six participant characteristics for both protocols and reports of trial results. Read more in the editorial: trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.... @ukcrc-ctu.org.uk @ecrin.bsky.social

It's Red4Research Day today! Thanks to everyone – research participants, patients, professionals, volunteers and regulatory bodies – working together to do health and social care research. rdforum.nhs.uk/red4research... #Red4Research

A couple of Studies Within A Trial (SWATs), one results, one a protocol, just out in the journal Trials: trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.... trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

🎉 Stage 2 is LIVE - where YOU get to decide the People's favourite question! ➡️ If you're joining The People's Review for the first time sign-up here: buff.ly/kAuYITA ➡️ If joined us for Stage 1 you can login in directly to Cochrane Crowd here: buff.ly/q0WudTM

The Edinburgh Clinical Trial Management Course, Nov 6th and 7th 2025 in Edinburgh, is now open for bookings: clinical-research-facility.ed.ac.uk/edinburgh-cl...

We’re bombarded with health advice 24/7. Systematic reviews help cut through the noise—but most people don’t know what they are. 💥 That’s where #ThePeoplesReview comes in. Learn about systematic reviews, by doing a systematic review 🔗https://www.thepeoplesreview.ie/join-now

To kick off #MethodologyMonday in May, we bring you a poignant article by the Editors in Chief of the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. They address the “elephant in the room”, the upheaval of the global evidence research eco-systems pursued by the US administration. www.jclinepi.com/article/S089...

We spoke with @streweek.bsky.social about why so much health research still falls short. Shaun argues that big parts of health research is “bad” & does not bring the needed value to the evidence-base. Tune in to learn how we can conduct “good” research for our patients 🎙️!

💻 Come along to our next Capacity Strengthening Hub webinar with @tghn-news.bsky.social to hear about experts' experience, general principles and a practical framework for communicating #ClinicalTrials results with participants. 🗓️ 2 June 🕙 10:00-11:30 BST 📍 Online Register now: bit.ly/4k28ALd

We’re bombarded with health advice 24/7. 😵‍💫 Systematic reviews help cut through the noise—but most people don’t know what they are. 💥 That’s where #ThePeoplesReview comes in. Learn about systematic reviews, by doing a systematic review www.thepeoplesreview.ie

This literature review identified strategies to enhance the racial & ethnic diversity of breast cancer trial populations. It resulted in 8 key strategic themes, which were used to create a new Racial and Minority Growth model. #MethodologyMonday Scott & Westwell orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/17...

A major update to the CONSORT reporting guidance for clinical trials was published last week. 📌 CONSORT 2025 replaces all previous versions and should be used from now on. So what’s new and what’s different? 1/7 #MethodologyMonday #116 (COI - I am a co-author)

🚨We are thrilled that our protocol has been selected as the article of the month in Research Involvement and Engagement. Full article here: researchinvolvement.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.... #ThePeoplesReview #PoweredByThePublic #ArticleOfTheMonth

We have just created a library of participant information leaflets for trials, over 200, if you are looking for inspiration. Check out: www.trialforge.org/excelsior-pi... The is part of EXCELSIOR, a project ed by Frances Shiely at Cork University.

Today has been lovely, a grant was funded, had a couple of very productive and enjoyable meetings, got some stuff off my To Do list and the sun is shining. If a red squirrel came to the bird feeder at tea-time, that really would be the cherry on the top.

Many thanks to @vcornelius.bsky.social and @gsmaclennan.bsky.social for coming to Cork and sharing their wisdom on clinical trials today.

Interested in audit and feeback strategies and how they may improve healthcare practice? Then check out the updated Cochrane review on the topic, co-authored by our own Kristin Konnyu: Audit and feedback: effects on professional practice - Ivers, N - 2025 www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10....

🆕Paper📢 In their follow-up study in ‘Tolerating bad health research’, Shaun Treweek and colleagues conducted risk of bias assessment of 140 UK, Irish and Canadian trials. Despite the bad trials (55%), trials judged to be good increased from 9% to 16%. trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Tolerating bad health research (part 2): trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.... In summary, after risk of bias reassessment of 140 UK, Irish and Canadian trials, there were still as many bad trials (55%) but trials judged to be good increased from 9% to 16%. Not very reassuring really.

❗ Latest issue of @thelancet.bsky.social out today and featuring the TEMPO trial on the cover 🙂 My summary thread here: bsky.app/profile/gjho... Open access paper here: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Here's a new risk of bias tool for systematic reviews: ROBUST-RCT www.bmj.com/content/388/... Similar to an older Cochrane risk of bias tool, it looks like something that could actually be used, which is great. The team explicitly aimed to balance simplicity and methodological rigour.

Here's an interesting rapid review on strategies to enhance the ethnic diversity of breast cancer clinical drug trials. It gives some trial recruitment and retention recommendations too. www.academia.edu/2998-7741/1/...

A new publication on the involvement of ethnic minority people in health and social care research priority setting from around the world. In summary, very few countries reported the involvement of ethnic minority community members in research priority-setting. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

SAVE THE DATE! The HRB-TMRN, with @mrcnihrtmrp.bsky.social, is delivering a "Roadmap Workshop: A road trip for PPI with Trials Methodology Research" with Derek Stewart & Katherine Cowan. Expressions of Interests will open very soon. Email us at [email protected] for more information.

Interested in the GRADE approach? On 28th & 29 April, Prof. Declan Devane, Dr K. M. Saif-Ur-Rahman from ESI & Philipp Kapp of the Freiburg GRADE center host a workshop on the complete guideline development process with GRADE at NUI Merrion Square. More info: evidencesynthesisireland.ie/training/

New paper exploring measuring #environmental impact of #health interventions - we found diversity in outcomes, measures, & analysis. Limited involvement of interested parties. Absolutely essential to do better and reach consensus on what's important to measure www.jclinepi.com/article/S089...

Do you work in the field of clinical trials? Please consider taking part in a Aberdeen-led survey that explores the practices of sharing recruitment and/ or retention rates with recruiting sites as a method to improve recruitment and/or retention behaviours. forms.office.com/e/9RCxiiCXM2.

🎥 Our Director, Professor Kamlesh Khunti, discusses the importance of research #collaboration for improving patient outcomes in this new film by @nihr.bsky.social Watch it here:

@ecrin.bsky.social and the Spanish Clinical Research Network (SCReN) are running a joint event on inclusive trials for International Clinical Trials Day, 20th May. Venue in Madrid. Free registration at: ecrin.org/ictd-2025

Participant recruitment & retention in RCTs of melanoma surveillance: scoping review - D Ackermann, K Bell, me & others Just out in Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Need more consistent, detailed reporting of recruitment/retention strategies in RCTs

A colleague sent me a document today that included a link to a fantastic video on Frances Kelsey, the scientist who refuted the evidence submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration in support of thalidomide licensing for use in pregnancy: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wIB... Worth a watch.

I talk about this a lot with my consulting hat on. The financial pressures on libraries to cover the costs of the ever-increasing article output, and the drivers of research misconduct, are driven in large part by the way we incentivise and measure researchers (1)

ESI Workshop for the health economists out there 💹 - 'Evidence Synthesis for Economic Evaluation' is being delivered by @gillespie-p.bsky.social & Paul Carty at the National University of Ireland, Merrion Square on the 5th March. For more info or to register: evidencesynthesisireland.ie/training/

Pleased to have been a part of this new paper from the UK Health Data Research Alliance, which presents five recommendations for improving data collection for inclusive health research. It resulted from 4 workshops with relevant stakeholders and public members. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

ESI Webinar - Krystle Amog of the IHPME at the Univeristy of Toronto will deliver a talk on the “Right Review: A tool that helps you decide which evidence synthesis method is right for you” on the 20th March @ 1pm (UTC). To register, universityofgalway-ie.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

If you are interested in making randomised trials more inclusive there's a lot of material on the Trial Forge site: www.trialforge.org/improving-tr... ..and it's also worth looking at STEP UP: step-up-clinical-trials.co.uk

Looking for an NIHR pre-doctoral fellowship opportunity in trials methodology? Feel free to contact me!

Trial participant self‑reported understanding of randomisation phrases in participant info can be high but acceptability of some descriptions is low esp if linked to gambling/luck @streweek.bsky.social @katiegillies.bsky.social @taliaisaacs.bsky.social trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

These have been put together by the York Trial Forge Centre www.york.ac.uk/healthscienc...

Early registration now open for bsky friends 😜 Please join us in Cork if you are interested in discussing the future of clinical trials infrastructure in Ireland, particularly in terms of study design, statistics, data analysis and data management/stewardship. conference.ucc.ie/hrb-clinical...

Join us for the first ESI Summer School on "Introduction to Evidence Synthesis" this May! This course is tailored for beginners and those looking to refresh their skills. Learn how to conduct #SystematicReviews & #EvidenceSynthesis. 🔗https://evidencesynthesisireland.ie/training/summer-school-2025

"We need less research, better research, and research done for the right reasons." Doug Altman wrote this in 1994. NINETEEN NINETY FOUR! And it's only gotten much much worse. At least in medicine and health, we are doing harm by maintaining a stutus quo aimed at maximizing publication numbers.

If you are doing work on equity, diversity and inclusion in randomised controlled trials, the journal Trials has a special series you could submit to: www.biomedcentral.com/collections/... Deadline end of June, and articles can be original research, commentary, education but not protocols.

NEW PAPER On quantifying uncertainty in your predictions. Excellently led by the group of @richarddriley.bsky.social www.bmj.com/content/388/...

Very smart from the HRB! Kudos. For these kinds of small but useful awards, we have to drive down the total cost of everyone applying, not to mention reviewing. It's not financially sustainable for scores of high salaried profs to spend several hours each on applications for these awards.