explanatory trial

explanatory trial

A generic term of art referring to a clinical trial that tests whether an intervention can have a beneficial effect in an ideal situation. Such trials seek to maximise internal validity by assuring rigorous control of all variables other than the intervention, and thus are often conducted in large tertiary care, referral-based health centres on a homogeneous group of patients, who have demonstrated compliance, are likely to remain in the study and often have no medical condition other than the one under treatment. Explanatory trials test whether a therapy can work; pragmatic trials (see there) test whether a therapy does in fact work, by managing patients in the real world.