= Clinical trial
{wiki}
A <clinical trial> is a research study that prospectively assigns people to an intervention to evaluate health-related outcomes. The intervention can be a medicine, procedure, device or behavioural approach. In a <randomized controlled trial>, random assignment creates comparison <groups>; <blinding> reduces some measurement and expectation effects. For example, comparing a new treatment with usual care requires a prespecified outcome and follow-up interval, not merely observing whether treated participants improve. A trial differs from an <observational study>, where investigators do not assign the exposure.https://www.nih.gov/health-information/nih-clinical-research-trials-you/basics[NIH, The Basics: clinical trials and research phases]{ref}
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