Welcome

What are you trying to do?

Something I need to watch regularly in medicine and clinical research.

Before you start. Monitors currently run from the command line rather than from a page. The engine works and is tested; the interface for setting them up is still being built, so this route is the least finished of the four.

Your path

Create the study

One study holds the whole series.

Chart it before you judge it

A control chart separates ordinary variation from a real change. Most month-to-month movement is noise, and acting on it makes a process less stable rather than more.

Set up a monitor

A saved analysis with a cadence. It re-runs and reports what moved, without claiming the movement is significant - two consecutive estimates are not independent samples.

Read the series, not the last point

Twelve points tell you what one never can.

What people in your field ask

In medicine and clinical researchthe full guide

Design and register - collect with consent - describe the sample - answer the primary question - check the assumptions - report to CONSORT or STROBE.

Does the new treatment work better than the standard one?independent t
Is the cheaper treatment no worse than the expensive one?non inferiority
How good is this test at telling sick from well?diagnostic accuracy
Is our new test better than the existing one?roc comparison
Does the exposure raise the risk?risk measures

Watch for: p values in the baseline characteristics table of a randomised trial. Any imbalance is by definition chance, and CONSORT has advised against it since 2001.

Create your first study The full guide for medicine and clinical research Start again