Back to: Assess for Risk of Bias

For many research questions that test a healthcare treatment, a well-designed randomized controlled trial (RCT) is the ideal study.

If you remember, RCTs test a research question by splitting research participants into at least two groups: those who get a particular treatment and those who get a different treatment, a placebo, or, sometimes, nothing at all.

In the video below, our colleague Valerie Rofeberg talks about the ideal RCT and how real world RCTs can fall short.

In short, risk of bias is everywhere! But it’s not as easy to identify as you might think.