Clinical trial reanalyses may alter who should get treated
Second scrutiny of published medical studies can conflict with first conclusion
Fresh looks at previously published clinical trial data can change recommendations about which patients to treat. In fact, in a new study, roughly one-third of reanalyses drew conclusions opposing the original ones.
Clinical trials, the gold standard of medical research, are rarely reanalyzed. The new work identified only 37 statistical redos in all medical literature since 1966. Of those, 13 came to a conclusion different from the original paper’s, researchers report in the Sept. 10 JAMA.