Web resources

This section contains the following:

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Clinical Trial Guidelines

(http://www.crc.gov.my/research/guidelines.htm )


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ICH Harmonised Tripartite Guideline for Good Clinical Practice

The International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) is a unique project that brings together the regulatory authorities of Europe, Japan and the United States and experts from the pharmaceutical industry in the three regions to discuss scientific and technical aspects of product registration.

The purpose is to make recommendations on ways to achieve greater harmonisation in the interpretation and application of technical guidelines and requirements for product registration in order to reduce or obviate the need to duplicate the testing carried out during the research and development of new medicines. The objective of such harmonisation is a more economical use of human, animal and material resources, and the elimination of unnecessary delay in the global development and availability of new medicines whilst maintaining safeguards on quality, safety and efficacy, and regulatory obligations to protect public health. This Mission is embodied in the Terms of Reference of ICH. 

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Randomised Controlled Trials. A user’s guide by Alejandro R Jadad

In this superbly lucid explanation of RCTs, their benefits, pitfalls, and the ethical dilemmas involved, Alex Jadad distils his wide knowledge, based on years of work at the University of Oxford, and at the hub of research learning, McMaster University, into a simple question-and-answer format covering:

  1. types of RCTs
  2. bias
  3. quality assessment
  4. reporting and interpreting individual trials
  5. from individual to groups of trials - reviews, metaanlyses and guidelines
  6. from trials to decisions - the basis of evidence based health care

Making such concepts both simple to grasp and fascinating is an art that Alex Jadad has mastered, to produce a book that will be an invaluable companion to all those in health care who endeavour to make the best use of clinical research. 

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Directory of Randomisation Software and Services

This is a directory of randomisation software and services for clinical trials, including both simple do-it-yourself software and 24 hour telephone randomisation services.  It is intended to help people planning and seeking funding for clinical trials. 

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Notes on Randomisation in Clinical Trials

These notes are part of a guide to planning a research project for researchers in health care.  It is written for applicants for NHS R&D funding, but will be useful for everyone trying to set up healthcare research projects. 

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The Ethics of Research Related to Healthcare in Developing Countries

This Report defines the ethical standards for healthcare research in low- and middle income countries countries.  It will provide a framework for anyone who is designing or conducting such research.  The Report's recommendations focus on standards of care, consent, ethical review of research and what happens when the research is over. 

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Human Participant Protection Education for Research Teams

This course is intended for use by those involved in the design and conduct of biomedical and behavioral research involving human participants, including:

This tutorial presents common concepts, principles, and issues related to protection of human participants, including principles of bioethics and basic legal standards.  The course includes narrative text, case studies, and exercises to provide research teams with a multifaceted approach to human subjects protection.

The information presented is neither prescriptive nor exhaustive and is intended to act as a companion piece to your institutional policy in addition to local, state, and federal regulations applicable to human research.  The tutorial will help you and your team identify research activities that involve human participants and help you understand how to protect the rights and welfare of all human participants involved in research. 

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Guidelines for Good Practice in the Conduct of Clinical Trials in Human Participants in South Africa

The purpose of these guidelines is to ensure that clinical trials conducted on human participants are designed and conducted according to sound scientific and ethical standards within the framework of good clinical practice.  Compliance with these standards provides the public with assurance that the rights, safety and well being of trial participants are protected and that the clinical trial data are credible. 

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Developing written information for patients Good Practice Guidelines

These guidelines were developed to provide assistance with developing information resources for patients.  Checklists are also provided to allow authors and others assess the information. 

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What makes a good leaflet?

This checklist highlights the key points that ensure a leaflet keeps the reader’s attention and is easily understood.  It also allows you to assess how well the sheet/leaflet has been written, designed and illustrated. 

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The Immpact project - the initiative for maternal mortality programme assessment

IMMPACT is a global research initiative whose ultimate goal is to improve maternal health and survival in developing countries by providing rigorous evidence of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of safe motherhood intervention strategies and their implications for equity and sustainability. Improving the evidence base for decision-making will enable a cascade of benefits, including health gains to women, babies and families, social and economic gains for the wider community, and enhanced methods and capacities for robust evaluation of health programmes.


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Web Pages that Perform Statistical Calculations!

The web pages listed here comprise a powerful, conveniently-accessible, multi-platform statistical software package.  There are also links to online statistics books, tutorials, downloadable software, and related resources. All of these resources are freely accessible, once you can get onto the Internet. 

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Topics in Statistical Data Analysis

This site offers information on statistical data analysis. It describes time series analysis, popular distributions, and other topics. It examines the use of computers in statistical data analysis. It also lists related books and links to related Web sites. 

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The Electronic Statistics Textbook

This Electronic Statistics Textbook offers training in the understanding and application of statistics.  The material was developed at the StatSoft R&D department based on many years of teaching undergraduate and graduate statistics courses and covers a wide variety of applications, including laboratory research (biomedical, agricultural, etc.), business statistics and forecasting, social science statistics and survey research, data mining, engineering and quality control applications, and many others. 

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EpiInfo

With Epi Info 2002 and a personal computer, epidemiologists and other public health and medical professionals can rapidly develop a questionnaire or form, customize the data entry process, and enter and analyze data. Epidemiologic statistics, tables, graphs, and maps are produced with simple commands such as READ, FREQ, LIST, TABLES, GRAPH, and MAP. 

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Resource Centre for Randomised Trials

The Resource Centre for Randomised Trials (RCRT) aims to provide a central and generic archive of resources relevant to the process of developing and doing trials.  This will help maximise the overall investment made in trials.  To ensure ease of access, whenever feasible the materials within this library will be accessible via a website that is regularly updated.  

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TrialsCentral

TrialsCentral provides free and confidential access to listings of clinical trials. Information about current clinical research helps support informed evidence-based decision making in healthcare.  The RESOURCES page links to health care information sites, including medical dictionaries, articles, and links to other evidence-based health care sites. 

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The Society for Clinical Trials

The Society for Clinical Trials, created in 1978, is an international professional organization dedicated to the development and dissemination of knowledge about the design and conduct of clinical trials and related health care research methodologies. 

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Update Software

Update Software specialises in electronic publishing in fields such as health care where research information is needed to inform practice.  The databases available are:

(http://www.update-software.com/ )


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Current Controlled Trials

The metaRegister of Controlled Trials is a searchable, international database of ongoing randomised controlled trials in all areas of healthcare.  At present, the mRCT also contains some completed trials.  Offering access to more than 14,000 records, the mRCT is free. 

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PubMed

PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine, provides access to over 12 million MEDLINE citations back to the mid-1960's and additional life science journals.  PubMed includes links to many sites providing full text articles and other related resources.

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BioMed Central

BioMed Central is an independent publishing house committed to providing immediate free access to peer-reviewed biomedical research.  All the original research articles in journals published by BioMed Central are immediately and permanently available online without charge or any other barriers to access. 

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BMJ

The contents of the BMJ from 1994 to the present are available free of charge.
 

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Canadian Medical Association Journal

The contents of the CMAJ from 1995 to the present are available free of charge. 

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JAMA

The contents of JAMA from 1999 to the present are available free of charge. 

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Lancet

The contents of The Lancet from 1996 to the present are available free of charge (you're required to register). 

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The Cochrane Collaboration

The Cochrane Collaboration is an international organisation that aims to help people make well–informed decisions about health care by preparing, maintaining and promoting the accessibility of systematic reviews of the effects of healthcare interventions.  It is a not–for–profit organisation, established as a company, limited by guarantee, and registered as a charity in the UK (number 1045921).  

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The CONSORT Statement

The CONSORT statement is an important research tool that takes an evidence-based approach to improve the quality of reports of randomized trials. The statement is available in six languages and has been endorsed by prominent medical journals such as The Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine, and the Journal of the American Medical Association. Its critical value to researchers, health care providers, peer reviewers, and journal editors, and health policy makers is the guarantee of integrity in the reported results of research. 

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A ScHARR Introduction to Evidence Based Practice on the Internet

Netting the Evidence is intended to facilitate evidence-based healthcare by providing support and access to helpful organisations and useful learning resources, such as an evidence-based virtual library, software and journals. 


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Systran information and translation services

SYSTRAN is the leading provider of the world's most scalable and modular translation architecture.  Its core technology powers revolutionary translation solutions for the Internet, PCs and network infrastructures that facilitate communication in 35 language pairs and in 20 specialized domains. 


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This document was updated on 1st April 2005.