Join us on October 23rd to continue our Fall 2024 CTML Seminar Series. Mark Pletcher's talk "Embedded RCTs in Learning Health Systems" will take place at 11:00AM at Berkeley Way West, 5th Floor, Room 5401.
By embedding randomization into the process of healthcare delivery and comparing outcomes of patients randomly exposed to an intervention or an alternative, health systems can learn to improve the care they deliver and the outcomes of their patients. Embedding randomization into healthcare delivery, however, is challenging. Randomization must be triggered for the right patient at the right time, occur without delay, induce a modification in healthcare delivery (according to randomization assignment) without confusing providers or causing medical errors, and cause minimal disruption to usual clinical workflows. In this talk, I’ll describe the systems we’ve developed at UCSF for embedding RCTs in our health system, and some of the methodological (and ethical) challenges that arise in using RCTs for quality improvement.