Pragmatic randomized clinical trial
A pragmatic randomized clinical trial (pragmatic RCT) is an interventional study that tests whether a treatment works under routine clinical conditions, as opposed to the tightly controlled setting of an explanatory trial. It prioritizes broad eligibility, flexible delivery, and patient-relevant outcomes to answer the question 'Does this treatment work in everyday practice?' rather than 'Can this treatment work under ideal circumstances?' The distinction between pragmatic and explanatory trials was formally articulated by Schwartz and Lellouch in 1967 and operationalized by the PRECIS tool in 2009.
Source record
Citations copied verbatim from the method’s source record. No claim-level verification is inferred from them.
- Schwartz, D., & Lellouch, J. (1967). Explanatory and pragmatic attitudes in therapeutical trials. Journal of Chronic Diseases, 20(8), 637–648. · DOI 10.1016/0021-9681(67)90041-0
- Thorpe, K. E., Zwarenstein, M., Oxman, A. D., Treweek, S., Furberg, C. D., Altman, D. G., ... & Chalkidou, K. (2009). A pragmatic–explanatory continuum indicator summary (PRECIS): a tool to help trial designers. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 62(5), 464–475. · DOI 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2008.12.011
Curated claims
Claims persisted in the evidence ledger, each with its own assessment.
This view does not invent a claim assessment when the ledger has none.
Related methods
Generated from the method graph and shown as machine-suggested relations — no evidence claim is inferred.