Despite the current atmosphere of change in U.S. healthcare, most studies analyzing how effective improvement programs are do not use what is considered the top method for scientific research, according to The New York Times.
A recent study from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge revealed just 18 percent of American studies on how to improve healthcare use the "random assignment" method, compared to 41 percent of studies outside the U.S.
"Randomized trials are critical because they enable researchers to isolate the effects of a treatment or program, such as a drug or a visit from a home health aide," the article states. "They ensure that a change was due to the treatment or service and not some other factor."
Some feel random assignment trials are time-consuming and expensive, MIT professor and an author of the study, Amy Finkelstein, PhD, told The Times. However, she said there are ways around this, and conversely, random assignment trials could save the industry billions in the long run.
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