Clinical Trials as Topic
Works about pre-planned studies of the safety, efficacy, or optimum dosage schedule (if appropriate) of one or more diagnostic, therapeutic, or prophylactic drugs, devices, or techniques selected according to predetermined criteria of eligibility and observed for predefined evidence of favorable and unfavorable effects. This concept includes clinical trials conducted both in the U.S. and in other countries.
Research Design
Clinical Trials, Phase III as Topic
Works about comparative studies to verify the effectiveness of diagnostic, therapeutic, or prophylactic drugs, devices, or techniques determined in phase II studies. During these trials, patients are monitored closely by physicians to identify any adverse reactions from long-term use. These studies are performed on groups of patients large enough to identify clinically significant responses and usually last about three years. This concept includes phase III studies conducted in both the U.S. and in other countries.
Double-Blind Method
Treatment Outcome
Evaluation undertaken to assess the results or consequences of management and procedures used in combating disease in order to determine the efficacy, effectiveness, safety, and practicability of these interventions in individual cases or series.
Clinical Trials, Phase II as Topic
Works about studies that are usually controlled to assess the effectiveness and dosage (if appropriate) of diagnostic, therapeutic, or prophylactic drugs, devices, or techniques. These studies are performed on several hundred volunteers, including a limited number of patients with the target disease or disorder, and last about two years. This concept includes phase II studies conducted in both the U.S. and in other countries.
Clinical Trials, Phase I as Topic
Works about studies performed to evaluate the safety of diagnostic, therapeutic, or prophylactic drugs, devices, or techniques in healthy subjects and to determine the safe dosage range (if appropriate). These tests also are used to determine pharmacologic and pharmacokinetic properties (toxicity, metabolism, absorption, elimination, and preferred route of administration). They involve a small number of persons and usually last about 1 year. This concept includes phase I studies conducted both in the U.S. and in other countries.
Controlled Clinical Trials as Topic
Works about clinical trials involving one or more test treatments, at least one control treatment, specified outcome measures for evaluating the studied intervention, and a bias-free method for assigning patients to the test treatment. The treatment may be drugs, devices, or procedures studied for diagnostic, therapeutic, or prophylactic effectiveness. Control measures include placebos, active medicines, no-treatment, dosage forms and regimens, historical comparisons, etc. When randomization using mathematical techniques, such as the use of a random numbers table, is employed to assign patients to test or control treatments, the trials are characterized as RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIALS AS TOPIC.
Congresses as Topic
Evidence-Based Medicine
An approach of practicing medicine with the goal to improve and evaluate patient care. It requires the judicious integration of best research evidence with the patient's values to make decisions about medical care. This method is to help physicians make proper diagnosis, devise best testing plan, choose best treatment and methods of disease prevention, as well as develop guidelines for large groups of patients with the same disease. (from JAMA 296 (9), 2006)
Review Literature as Topic
Published materials which provide an examination of recent or current literature. Review articles can cover a wide range of subject matter at various levels of completeness and comprehensiveness based on analyses of literature that may include research findings. The review may reflect the state of the art. It also includes reviews as a literary form.
Abstracting and Indexing as Topic
Activities performed to identify concepts and aspects of published information and research reports.
Patient Selection
Criteria and standards used for the determination of the appropriateness of the inclusion of patients with specific conditions in proposed treatment plans and the criteria used for the inclusion of subjects in various clinical trials and other research protocols.
Textbooks as Topic
Placebos
Any dummy medication or treatment. Although placebos originally were medicinal preparations having no specific pharmacological activity against a targeted condition, the concept has been extended to include treatments or procedures, especially those administered to control groups in clinical trials in order to provide baseline measurements for the experimental protocol.
Clinical Protocols
Multicenter Studies as Topic
Follow-Up Studies
Prospective Studies
Observation of a population for a sufficient number of persons over a sufficient number of years to generate incidence or mortality rates subsequent to the selection of the study group.
Patient Education as Topic
The teaching or training of patients concerning their own health needs.
Single-Blind Method
Guidelines as Topic
A systematic statement of policy rules or principles. Guidelines may be developed by government agencies at any level, institutions, professional societies, governing boards, or by convening expert panels. The text may be cursive or in outline form but is generally a comprehensive guide to problems and approaches in any field of activity. For guidelines in the field of health care and clinical medicine, PRACTICE GUIDELINES AS TOPIC is available.
Meta-Analysis as Topic
A quantitative method of combining the results of independent studies (usually drawn from the published literature) and synthesizing summaries and conclusions which may be used to evaluate therapeutic effectiveness, plan new studies, etc., with application chiefly in the areas of research and medicine.
Clinical Trials Data Monitoring Committees
Committees established to review interim data and efficacy outcomes in clinical trials. The findings of these committees are used in deciding whether a trial should be continued as designed, changed, or terminated. Government regulations regarding federally-funded research involving human subjects (the "Common Rule") require (45 CFR 46.111) that research ethics committees reviewing large-scale clinical trials monitor the data collected using a mechanism such as a data monitoring committee. FDA regulations (21 CFR 50.24) require that such committees be established to monitor studies conducted in emergency settings.
Practice Guidelines as Topic
Directions or principles presenting current or future rules of policy for assisting health care practitioners in patient care decisions regarding diagnosis, therapy, or related clinical circumstances. The guidelines may be developed by government agencies at any level, institutions, professional societies, governing boards, or by the convening of expert panels. The guidelines form a basis for the evaluation of all aspects of health care and delivery.
Terminology as Topic
Drug Administration Schedule
Interviews as Topic
Questionnaires
Neoplasms
Pilot Projects
Programmed Instruction as Topic
Instruction in which learners progress at their own rate using workbooks, textbooks, or electromechanical devices that provide information in discrete steps, test learning at each step, and provide immediate feedback about achievement. (ERIC, Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors, 1996).
Clinical Trials, Phase IV as Topic
Planned post-marketing studies of diagnostic, therapeutic, or prophylactic drugs, devices, or techniques that have been approved for general sale. These studies are often conducted to obtain additional data about the safety and efficacy of a product. This concept includes phase IV studies conducted in both the U.S. and in other countries.
Quality of Life
Cost-Benefit Analysis
A method of comparing the cost of a program with its expected benefits in dollars (or other currency). The benefit-to-cost ratio is a measure of total return expected per unit of money spent. This analysis generally excludes consideration of factors that are not measured ultimately in economic terms. Cost effectiveness compares alternative ways to achieve a specific set of results.
Sample Size
The number of units (persons, animals, patients, specified circumstances, etc.) in a population to be studied. The sample size should be big enough to have a high likelihood of detecting a true difference between two groups. (From Wassertheil-Smoller, Biostatistics and Epidemiology, 1990, p95)
Drug Therapy, Combination
Outcome Assessment (Health Care)
Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
Risk Factors
Biomedical Research
Research that involves the application of the natural sciences, especially biology and physiology, to medicine.
Research Support as Topic
Financial support of research activities.
Herbals as Topic
Works about books, articles or other publications on herbs or plants describing their medicinal value.
Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols
The use of two or more chemicals simultaneously or sequentially in the drug therapy of neoplasms. The drugs need not be in the same dosage form.
Risk Assessment
Antineoplastic Agents
Substances that inhibit or prevent the proliferation of NEOPLASMS.
Combined Modality Therapy
Severity of Illness Index
Survival Analysis
A class of statistical procedures for estimating the survival function (function of time, starting with a population 100% well at a given time and providing the percentage of the population still well at later times). The survival analysis is then used for making inferences about the effects of treatments, prognostic factors, exposures, and other covariates on the function.
Internet
A loose confederation of computer communication networks around the world. The networks that make up the Internet are connected through several backbone networks. The Internet grew out of the US Government ARPAnet project and was designed to facilitate information exchange.
Publishing
"The business or profession of the commercial production and issuance of literature" (Webster's 3d). It includes the publisher, publication processes, editing and editors. Production may be by conventional printing methods or by electronic publishing.
Bookplates as Topic
Labels pasted in books to mark their ownership and sometimes to indicate their location in a library. Private bookplates are often ornate or artistic: simpler and smaller ones bearing merely the owner's name are called "book labels." They are usually pasted on the front endpaper of books. (From Harrod, The Librarians' Glossary and Reference Book, 4th rev ed & Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed)
Broadsides as Topic
Feasibility Studies
Dietary Supplements
Products in capsule, tablet or liquid form that provide dietary ingredients, and that are intended to be taken by mouth to increase the intake of nutrients. Dietary supplements can include macronutrients, such as proteins, carbohydrates, and fats; and/or MICRONUTRIENTS, such as VITAMINS; MINERALS; and PHYTOCHEMICALS.
Research
Critical and exhaustive investigation or experimentation, having for its aim the discovery of new facts and their correct interpretation, the revision of accepted conclusions, theories, or laws in the light of newly discovered facts, or the practical application of such new or revised conclusions, theories, or laws. (Webster, 3d ed)
Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
Webcasts as Topic
Transmission of live or pre-recorded audio or video content via connection or download from the INTERNET.
Cross-Over Studies
Studies comparing two or more treatments or interventions in which the subjects or patients, upon completion of the course of one treatment, are switched to another. In the case of two treatments, A and B, half the subjects are randomly allocated to receive these in the order A, B and half to receive them in the order B, A. A criticism of this design is that effects of the first treatment may carry over into the period when the second is given. (Last, A Dictionary of Epidemiology, 2d ed)
Research Subjects
Intention to Treat Analysis
Manuscripts as Topic
Compositions written by hand, as one written before the invention or adoption of printing. A manuscript may also refer to a handwritten copy of an ancient author. A manuscript may be handwritten or typewritten as distinguished from a printed copy, especially the copy of a writer's work from which printed copies are made. (Webster, 3d ed)
Patient Satisfaction
Disease-Free Survival
Random Allocation
A process involving chance used in therapeutic trials or other research endeavor for allocating experimental subjects, human or animal, between treatment and control groups, or among treatment groups. It may also apply to experiments on inanimate objects.
Reproducibility of Results
The statistical reproducibility of measurements (often in a clinical context), including the testing of instrumentation or techniques to obtain reproducible results. The concept includes reproducibility of physiological measurements, which may be used to develop rules to assess probability or prognosis, or response to a stimulus; reproducibility of occurrence of a condition; and reproducibility of experimental results.
Program Evaluation
Communication
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Survival Rate
Exercise Therapy
A regimen or plan of physical activities designed and prescribed for specific therapeutic goals. Its purpose is to restore normal musculoskeletal function or to reduce pain caused by diseases or injuries.
Pain Measurement
Scales, questionnaires, tests, and other methods used to assess pain severity and duration in patients or experimental animals to aid in diagnosis, therapy, and physiological studies.
Data Interpretation, Statistical
Data Collection
Systematic gathering of data for a particular purpose from various sources, including questionnaires, interviews, observation, existing records, and electronic devices. The process is usually preliminary to statistical analysis of the data.
Informed Consent
Voluntary authorization, by a patient or research subject, with full comprehension of the risks involved, for diagnostic or investigative procedures, and for medical and surgical treatment.
Prognosis
Cognitive Therapy
A direct form of psychotherapy based on the interpretation of situations (cognitive structure of experiences) that determine how an individual feels and behaves. It is based on the premise that cognition, the process of acquiring knowledge and forming beliefs, is a primary determinant of mood and behavior. The therapy uses behavioral and verbal techniques to identify and correct negative thinking that is at the root of the aberrant behavior.
Stroke
A group of pathological conditions characterized by sudden, non-convulsive loss of neurological function due to BRAIN ISCHEMIA or INTRACRANIAL HEMORRHAGES. Stroke is classified by the type of tissue NECROSIS, such as the anatomic location, vasculature involved, etiology, age of the affected individual, and hemorrhagic vs. non-hemorrhagic nature. (From Adams et al., Principles of Neurology, 6th ed, pp777-810)
Patient Participation
Health Promotion
Infusions, Intravenous
Pregnancy
Trial of Labor
MEDLINE
Health Education
Statistics as Topic
Placebo Effect
Bibliometrics
Disease Progression
The worsening of a disease over time. This concept is most often used for chronic and incurable diseases where the stage of the disease is an important determinant of therapy and prognosis.
Chronic Disease
Diseases which have one or more of the following characteristics: they are permanent, leave residual disability, are caused by nonreversible pathological alteration, require special training of the patient for rehabilitation, or may be expected to require a long period of supervision, observation, or care. (Dictionary of Health Services Management, 2d ed)
Analysis of Variance
Netherlands
Country located in EUROPE. It is bordered by the NORTH SEA, BELGIUM, and GERMANY. Constituent areas are Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten, formerly included in the NETHERLANDS ANTILLES.
Drug Evaluation
Decision Making
Medical Oncology
A subspecialty of internal medicine concerned with the study of neoplasms.
Almanacs as Topic
Publications, usually annual, containing a calendar for the coming year, the times of such events and phenomena as anniversaries, sunrises, sunsets, phases of the moon, tides, meteorological, and other statistical information and related topics. Almanacs are also annual reference books of useful and interesting facts relating to countries of the world, sports, entertainment, population groups, etc. (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2d ed)
Drug Industry
Evaluation Studies as Topic
Studies determining the effectiveness or value of processes, personnel, and equipment, or the material on conducting such studies. For drugs and devices, CLINICAL TRIALS AS TOPIC; DRUG EVALUATION; and DRUG EVALUATION, PRECLINICAL are available.
HIV Infections
Bias (Epidemiology)
Any deviation of results or inferences from the truth, or processes leading to such deviation. Bias can result from several sources: one-sided or systematic variations in measurement from the true value (systematic error); flaws in study design; deviation of inferences, interpretations, or analyses based on flawed data or data collection; etc. There is no sense of prejudice or subjectivity implied in the assessment of bias under these conditions.
Pain
Primary Health Care
Exercise
Databases as Topic
Safety
Chemotherapy, Adjuvant
Age Factors
Age as a constituent element or influence contributing to the production of a result. It may be applicable to the cause or the effect of a circumstance. It is used with human or animal concepts but should be differentiated from AGING, a physiological process, and TIME FACTORS which refers only to the passage of time.
Databases, Bibliographic
Extensive collections, reputedly complete, of references and citations to books, articles, publications, etc., generally on a single subject or specialized subject area. Databases can operate through automated files, libraries, or computer disks. The concept should be differentiated from DATABASES, FACTUAL which is used for collections of data and facts apart from bibliographic references to them.
Drug Combinations
Attitude of Health Personnel
Kaplan-Meier Estimate
A nonparametric method of compiling LIFE TABLES or survival tables. It combines calculated probabilities of survival and estimates to allow for observations occurring beyond a measurement threshold, which are assumed to occur randomly. Time intervals are defined as ending each time an event occurs and are therefore unequal. (From Last, A Dictionary of Epidemiology, 1995)
Canada
Motivation
Treatment Failure
Clinical Competence
Correspondence as Topic
Qualitative Research
Any type of research that employs nonnumeric information to explore individual or group characteristics, producing findings not arrived at by statistical procedures or other quantitative means. (Qualitative Inquiry: A Dictionary of Terms Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997)
Cluster Analysis
A set of statistical methods used to group variables or observations into strongly inter-related subgroups. In epidemiology, it may be used to analyze a closely grouped series of events or cases of disease or other health-related phenomenon with well-defined distribution patterns in relation to time or place or both.
Publication Bias
The influence of study results on the chances of publication and the tendency of investigators, reviewers, and editors to submit or accept manuscripts for publication based on the direction or strength of the study findings. Publication bias has an impact on the interpretation of clinical trials and meta-analyses. Bias can be minimized by insistence by editors on high-quality research, thorough literature reviews, acknowledgement of conflicts of interest, modification of peer review practices, etc.
Research Personnel
Those individuals engaged in research.
Architecture as Topic
Self Care
Biological Markers
Measurable and quantifiable biological parameters (e.g., specific enzyme concentration, specific hormone concentration, specific gene phenotype distribution in a population, presence of biological substances) which serve as indices for health- and physiology-related assessments, such as disease risk, psychiatric disorders, environmental exposure and its effects, disease diagnosis, metabolic processes, substance abuse, pregnancy, cell line development, epidemiologic studies, etc.
Algorithms
Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions
Retrospective Studies
Studies used to test etiologic hypotheses in which inferences about an exposure to putative causal factors are derived from data relating to characteristics of persons under study or to events or experiences in their past. The essential feature is that some of the persons under study have the disease or outcome of interest and their characteristics are compared with those of unaffected persons.
Predictive Value of Tests
In screening and diagnostic tests, the probability that a person with a positive test is a true positive (i.e., has the disease), is referred to as the predictive value of a positive test; whereas, the predictive value of a negative test is the probability that the person with a negative test does not have the disease. Predictive value is related to the sensitivity and specificity of the test.
Risk Reduction Behavior
Patient Dropouts
Education, Medical, Continuing
Incidence
Pragmatic Clinical Trials as Topic
United States Food and Drug Administration
Focus Groups
A method of data collection and a QUALITATIVE RESEARCH tool in which a small group of individuals are brought together and allowed to interact in a discussion of their opinions about topics, issues, or questions.
Neoplasm Staging
Myocardial Infarction
Australia
Therapeutic Human Experimentation
Chi-Square Distribution
A distribution in which a variable is distributed like the sum of the squares of any given independent random variable, each of which has a normal distribution with mean of zero and variance of one. The chi-square test is a statistical test based on comparison of a test statistic to a chi-square distribution. The oldest of these tests are used to detect whether two or more population distributions differ from one another.
Postoperative Complications
Fluorouracil
Physical Therapy Modalities
Phytotherapy
Use of plants or herbs to treat diseases or to alleviate pain.
Ethics, Medical
Publications
Health Care Costs
The actual costs of providing services related to the delivery of health care, including the costs of procedures, therapies, and medications. It is differentiated from HEALTH EXPENDITURES, which refers to the amount of money paid for the services, and from fees, which refers to the amount charged, regardless of cost.
Information Storage and Retrieval
Drug Approval
Mass Screening
Cohort Studies
Studies in which subsets of a defined population are identified. These groups may or may not be exposed to factors hypothesized to influence the probability of the occurrence of a particular disease or other outcome. Cohorts are defined populations which, as a whole, are followed in an attempt to determine distinguishing subgroup characteristics.
Newspapers
Cardiovascular Diseases
Statistics, Nonparametric
A class of statistical methods applicable to a large set of probability distributions used to test for correlation, location, independence, etc. In most nonparametric statistical tests, the original scores or observations are replaced by another variable containing less information. An important class of nonparametric tests employs the ordinal properties of the data. Another class of tests uses information about whether an observation is above or below some fixed value such as the median, and a third class is based on the frequency of the occurrence of runs in the data. (From McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 4th ed, p1284; Corsini, Concise Encyclopedia of Psychology, 1987, p764-5)
Models, Statistical
Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized
Antibodies from non-human species whose protein sequences have been modified to make them nearly identical with human antibodies. If the constant region and part of the variable region are replaced, they are called humanized. If only the constant region is modified they are called chimeric. INN names for humanized antibodies end in -zumab.
Recovery of Function
Internationality
Smoking Cessation
Program Development
The process of formulating, improving, and expanding educational, managerial, or service-oriented work plans (excluding computer program development).
Computer-Assisted Instruction
Paclitaxel
Behavior Therapy
The application of modern theories of learning and conditioning in the treatment of behavior disorders.
Education, Medical
Use for general articles concerning medical education.
Pain Management
A form of therapy that employs a coordinated and interdisciplinary approach for easing the suffering and improving the quality of life of those experiencing pain.
PubMed
A bibliographic database that includes MEDLINE as its primary subset. It is produced by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), part of the NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE. PubMed, which is searchable through NLM's Web site, also includes access to additional citations to selected life sciences journals not in MEDLINE, and links to other resources such as the full-text of articles at participating publishers' Web sites, NCBI's molecular biology databases, and PubMed Central.
Physiology
Proportional Hazards Models
Statistical models used in survival analysis that assert that the effect of the study factors on the hazard rate in the study population is multiplicative and does not change over time.
Cookbooks as Topic
Learning
Cisplatin
An inorganic and water-soluble platinum complex. After undergoing hydrolysis, it reacts with DNA to produce both intra and interstrand crosslinks. These crosslinks appear to impair replication and transcription of DNA. The cytotoxicity of cisplatin correlates with cellular arrest in the G2 phase of the cell cycle.
Drugs, Investigational
Neoplasm Recurrence, Local
The local recurrence of a neoplasm following treatment. It arises from microscopic cells of the original neoplasm that have escaped therapeutic intervention and later become clinically visible at the original site.