Spotlight on Research

The Unique Challenges of Analyzing Clinical Trials
by Abby Shoben, Department of Biostatistics

Abby Shoben

Clinical trials involve testing of new treatments in human patients. In order to protect these patients, data from a trial must be analyzed while the trial is still ongoing in order to ensure prompt delivery of highly effective treatments and timely cessation of the trial if the experimental treatment turns out to be ineffective or harmful. Special statistical methods are employed to account for analyses done during the course of the trial. To implement these methods, one must estimate the amount of certainty in the observed treatment effect—the statistical information—at each interim analysis time. Methods to estimate the statistical information have been developed for some types of data but have not been fully explored for longitudinal data, when multiple measurements are made over time, usually on the same individual. Longitudinal data are common in many settings, such as studies on the decline of kidney function in older adults or CD4 counts in HIV positive patients.