The Randomized Clinical Trial

Abstract
In 1952, Marc Daniels and Austin Bradford Hill (now Sir Austin) reported that streptomycin combined with para-aminosalicylic acid was more effective than bed rest, or the use of either drug alone, in the therapy of pulmonary tuberculosis in young adults.1 The patients participating in this trial, after they had been accepted on the basis of well defined criteria, were "randomly allocated to one of the treatment groups." So, according to A. L. Cochrane,2 the randomized clinical trial was launched and revealed as a practical means of applying the experimental method to clinical medicine.In spite of its availability for 20 . . .