First Name:
William
Last Name:
Bradley
Major Department:
Math
Thesis Director:
Jill Thomley
Date of Thesis:
May 2012
Clinical trials are the gold standard for medical research because these statistically designed experiments investigate the efficacy and potential side-effects of new medical treatments and pharmaceuticals, often comparing them to other available therapies. Trial implementation increasingly crosses national borders to reach a larger number of potential participants and to secure generalization to a more diverse population. This expansion brings new benefits and difficulties because one region’s culture influences the people involved with the trial differently than another region’s. This research gives advice for consideration when planning these trials. Proper design of these experiments manages cross-cultural influences when collecting data answering the research question, controlling for the placebo effect, and preparing for missingness and censoring that arise from conducting trials with arms in different locations.