The changing times of the ‘gold standard’: Examining the rise of adaptive design clinical trials
Adaptive design clinical trials have seen a marked increase in popularity in recent years. This has been evinced most recently by their use in the 2014 Ebola epidemic and their ongoing methodological elaboration in oncology. In this seminar, I will explore how change in the ‘gold standard’ of the RCT – namely a move from standard to adaptive designs – is being rationalised, legitimised and popularised. Drawing on Adams et al’s (2009) conceptual framework of anticipation, I will argue that changing discourses of time and patienthood have facilitated a move away from standardization as the singular logic of trials towards an appreciation of flexibility, undergirded by probabilistic methodologies. Within this evolving moral economy of medical research, modes of knowledge production which claim to know the future are supplanting the traditional certainties of fixed and standardized experimental designs. I will explore some of the practical and theoretical implications of this for trialists, patients and drug regulators.
Date: 20 July 2016, 10:30 (Wednesday, 13th week, Trinity 2016)
Venue: St Luke's Chapel, Woodstock Road OX2 6GG
Speaker: Dr Catherine Motngomery (University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences)
Organising department: Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences
Organiser: Susan Kirkpatrick (University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Helath Sciences, Senior Researcher)
Part of: Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences Seminars
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Jessy Morton