Randomised controlled trials and health services research

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Abstract
EDITOR,—Randomised controlled trials are viewed as the gold standard for medical research, and are advocated as an appropriate method for evaluating almost any medical intervention. However, they are neither universally applicable1 nor, as Ian R McWhinney and colleagues show,2 always realistically possible. Although they have been advocated as appropriate for use in health services research, serious problems can arise in practice that affect whether the data …