A new article in the Annals of Internal Medicine, “Randomized Quality Improvement Trials: An Overview and Proposed Framework for Ethical Oversight,” by Mark J. Pletcher, MD, MPH, Bernard Lo, MD, and Deborah Grady, MD, examines the growing role of randomized trials in quality improvement and proposes a framework for their ethical oversight.
The authors highlight the need for infrastructure and processes that enable health systems to conduct rigorous quality improvement trials while ensuring appropriate protections for patients and other participants.