due to the enormous hard work of sharon, finlay, douglas, brian, and our
clinical collaborators in 14 countries, we're entering patients into the
COAD#1 study at the rate of 25 per week! (that's nine times the rate
achieved by the best prior study in COAD.)
as you may recall, this first study asks the question: In consecutive
patients known, suspected, or neither known nor suspected by their
examiners to have COAD, what is the accuracy (validated against
independent, blind spirometry) of the following? age, sex, smoking
history, wheezing on auscultation (on bare skin or through one layer of
clothing), low larynx, and laryngeal descent (how to do the latter is
shown in a movie on the CARE website).
the confidential internet data entry and instantaneous confirmation (of
edited data, as it will appear in the database) is working extremely well,
generating clean data right from the start!
interim analyses show the hoped for balance of sex (46% women), site (54%
from primary care), and COAD status (27% known, 27% expected).
by agreement and protocol, only the investigators who have entered
patients have received the background slide show, and only they will
receive the data analyses.
once participating investigators are satisfied with the results and have
developed a presentation and publication strategy (each will recieve a
full set of powerpoint ersults for presentation at home and at mutually
agreed meetings), a general summary will be sent to all COAD members.
we're already planning subsequent studies in the series, and if any of you
have both some ideas about questions worth answering and the gumption to
collaborate in hammering out the protocol and entering patients, please
send your ideas to:
[log in to unmask]
again, all praise and cheers to those who are making this enterprise such
a success and so much fun!
dls for the oxford gang
............................................................................
Prof David L. Sackett
Director, NHS R&D Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine
Consultant in Medicine Editor, Evidence-Based Medicine
Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford
Level 5, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU, England
Phone: +44-(0)1865-221320 Fax: +44-(0)1865 222901
Email: [log in to unmask] WWW: http://cebm.jr2.ox.ac.uk
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