JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Adaptive clinical trials are increasingly used in many medical trials because of their attractive features relative to completely randomized controlled trials. This paper reviews fundamental concepts of different types of adaptive randomization schemes and designs for clinical trials. We describe their appealing features and some recent sample applications of adaptive designs in clinical trials for patients with lung or brain injury problems. We describe a few websites and online tools for finding these designs and iterate the usefulness of having such sites to facilitate biomedical researchers in the search for more efficient designs. In particular, in the era of digital health, adaptive methods can be readily implemented and closely monitored for implementing multi-site adaptive trials. We close with a summary of advantages of adaptive designs and a discussion of their challenges and directions for further research.