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SUMMARY:A philosopher of science looks at medicine: do we 'need some large
 \, simple randomized trials'? - John Worrall (London School of Economics)
DTSTART:20091029T163000Z
DTEND:20091029T180000Z
UID:TALK20367@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Alex Broadbent
DESCRIPTION:A number of arguments have convinced nearly all of the medical
  community that randomized controlled trials provide the most telling\, mo
 st scientifically weighty evidence for the efficacy of any treatment. Earl
 ier work suggests that all but one of these arguments fail to withstand cr
 itical scrutiny.\n\nThe exception is the argument from 'selection bias'. A
 lthough this argument sounds very plausible\, I suggest in this talk that 
 it faces a number of both epistemological and practical problems. In parti
 cular it focuses attention on the relatively under-emphasised (epistemic) 
 issue of 'external validity' (generalisability to the 'target population')
  and on practical issues about the significance of (very) large trials aim
 ed at detecting small effects.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, History and Philosophy of Science\, Department o
 f
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