Values and Reflective Processes; Epistemic institutions; Economic Growth
RCTs are the gold standard in social science research but are frequently too expensive for most researchers to run, particularly in the United States. We are interested in large-scale funding of RCTs that are usually impossible due to a lack of funding.
Higher-leverage way to do this might be to lobby for reforms making it easier to gather “Phase 4” data on therapies already in use? Or reform the FDA in one of various other ways, for instance so they give provisional approval to therapies which have merely been shown to be safe but not necessarily effective? Or code up some kind of platform that makes it easier for small organizations to run large trials by doing stuff like mailing people supplements and fitbit-like devices without having to jump through a bunch of formidable bureaucratic hoops.
I think this is all correct! By the way, I was mostly thinking of RCTs in the social sciences—like randomized school vouchers or the Perry Preschool Experiment—but it’s equally true in the FDA/medical context.
(Per Nick’s post, reposting)
Large-scale randomized controlled trials
Values and Reflective Processes; Epistemic institutions; Economic Growth
RCTs are the gold standard in social science research but are frequently too expensive for most researchers to run, particularly in the United States. We are interested in large-scale funding of RCTs that are usually impossible due to a lack of funding.
Higher-leverage way to do this might be to lobby for reforms making it easier to gather “Phase 4” data on therapies already in use? Or reform the FDA in one of various other ways, for instance so they give provisional approval to therapies which have merely been shown to be safe but not necessarily effective? Or code up some kind of platform that makes it easier for small organizations to run large trials by doing stuff like mailing people supplements and fitbit-like devices without having to jump through a bunch of formidable bureaucratic hoops.
I think this is all correct! By the way, I was mostly thinking of RCTs in the social sciences—like randomized school vouchers or the Perry Preschool Experiment—but it’s equally true in the FDA/medical context.