Grant: Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and systematic reviews (SRs) of these trials are used to make policy and clinical decisions regarding health care. These types of studies are considered the highest quality of evidence, but they can sometimes provide misleading information depending on how they are done. Healthcare workers and other decision-makers need the highest quality of evidence to make decisions about which treatments should be used. However, the way to determine what is good quality evidence has been controversial and most of the tools used to decide which are good or bad trials have not been well tested. We know from scientific studies that research should be done in a certain way to provide accurate information about the effectiveness of treatments. For instance, studies where the researchers and participants do not know what intervention they are getting provide more accurate results than other studies. Much research has been conducted in recent years to help guide how studies are done. However, most of this research has been done in the field of medicine and now needs to be expanded to other health areas, in particular the allied health professions such as physical therapy. This project will identify how to design randomized trials in physical therapy so that they provide the most accurate information about the effectiveness of different interventions. This information is particularly important for researchers, healthcare workers, decision-makers, and patients. Physiotherapists and other decision-makers need solid evidence to decide which treatments will help their patients so that they can provide the best healthcare possible. Patients need to be sure that decisions regarding their clinical care are based on solid information. Thus, more informed decision making regarding clinical care will ultimately improve patient outcomes and will increase efficiency in the health care system.