Most of the clinical studies in the database are sponsored primarily by the National Institutes of Health. Other trials will be included in the future. Users can choose to search for clinical trials, or browse by condition or by funding organisation. This list covers the evaluation of the effects and claims of the main complementary medical therapies. The main topics will be the design and interpretation of clinical trials and supporting background scientific research.
Anecdotal reports are appropriate if they can lead to testable claims.
The home page of the Crusaid centre, an AIDS information centre set up at Charing Cross and Westminster Hospital. This is the second of 10 articles introducing non-experts to finding medical articles and assessing their value. It provides an overview of the general principles behind critical appraisal, randomised controlled trials, cohort studies, case-control studies, cross sectional surveys, case reports and the hierarchy of evidence. The paper was written by Trisha Greenhalgh, and was published in the British Medical Journal. This is the sixth in a series of 10 articles introducing non-experts to finding medical articles and assessing their value.