HSEM 3708 Honors Seminar in Clinical Trials - Spring 2009

Proposed Assignments for Group Presentations & Written Summaries

[This will be updated frequently ...]

Presentations should include discussion of the following:

 1.  The medical problem
 2.  Justification for doing the clinical trial; previous studies?
 3.  Who sponsored the trial?  Who authored the paper?
 4.  Design of the trial
 5.  Primary and secondary endpoints
 6.  Duration of the trial (planned and actual)
 7.  What were the main eligibility requirements?
 8.  Sample size and number of clinical centers
 9.  Describe the main statistical analyses
10.  Describe the main results
11.  If the trial was stopped early, explain why
12.  Was this clinical trial important, and why?  Did it make a
     difference in treatment of patients?
13.  Are there aspects of this clinical trial that could be
     criticized?  Explain.
14.  What did you like best about the presentation of the results?
15.  Was there an editorial accompanying the primary publication
     of this clinical trial's results?  What were the major points
     made in the editorial?
16.  Other comments or observations

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Team #1:  Jon Strong, Halyna Ivalschuk, Margaret Dimond, Bora Kutomba

          Study:  "Conjugated Equine Estrogens and Incidence of
          Probable Dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment in Postmenopausal
          Women" by S. A. Shumaker et al.

          Can be downloaded as a PDF file from the following website:

             http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/291/24/2947


          Presentation date: Monday April 13, 2009
        
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Team #2:

          Study: The ALL-HAT clinical trial on hypertension

          Presentation date:

          Web address for the paper:

          http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/288/23/2981

          See also editorial:

          http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/288/23/3039

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Team #3:  Erin Broberg, Sam Tashima, Erin Theisen

          Study: The NETT trial on lung reduction surgery

          Presentation date:  Wednesday April 1, 2009

          Web address for the paper:

          http://content.nejm.org/cgi/reprint/345/15/1075.pdf?ijkey=e4f07080727ff4145ce553abf0d4324009c07e05

          See also editorial:

          http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/345/15/1126-a

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Team #4:  Kasia Bartczak, Neha Rajagopal, Leigh Scheiner, Brianna Kelm

          Study: The Concorde Trial (HIV/AIDS: Lancet 334,
          pages 871-881, 1994)

          Related article:  British Medical Journal 1996; 313:608-610.
          For Debate: Will We Ever Know When to Treat
          HIV Infection.  A. Phillips, G. Davey Smith, M. Johnson.

          Web site: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/313/7057/608

          Presentation date:  Wednesday, April 8 2009.

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Team #5:  Tope' Daniel, Azra Thakur, Marissa Koran, Erin Brekke

          Study: Any clinical trial published in NEJM, JAMA, or
                 Lancet, 2000-2009.

          Presentation date: Monday, April 20, 2009

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Team #6:  Bora Kutomba, Sarah Gad, Peter Fliss

          Study: The Coronary Artery Surgery Study (CASS)

          reference: Circulation, vol. 68, pp 951-960, 1983.

          Abstract:

          http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/68/5/951

          The text of the article (pdf file) can be downloaded from
          the above website.

          Presentation Date:  April 29, 2009
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File name: ~john-c/HSEM3010.group.assignments
Date of last revision: April 13, 2009