Confronta i metodi

	Studio Pilota Randomizzato Controllato	Trial Controllato Randomizzato Cross-over
Campo	Disegno sperimentale	Disegno sperimentale
Famiglia	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Anno di origine	1990s–2000s (methodological formalization)	1960s (Grizzle 1965 for statistical foundations); widely used in clinical research since the 1970s
Ideatore	Formalized through clinical trials methodology community	Early formalized by statisticians including Bradford Hill and colleagues in clinical trials; theoretical framework developed by Grizzle (1965) and later Senn (2002)
Tipo	Experimental feasibility design	Experimental within-subject design
Fonte seminale	Thabane, L., Ma, J., Chu, R., Cheng, J., Ismaila, A., Rios, L. P., ... & Goldsmith, C. H. (2010). A tutorial on pilot studies: the what, why and how. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 10(1), 1.	Senn, S. (2002). Cross-over Trials in Clinical Research (2nd ed.). Wiley. ISBN: 978-0471496533
Alias	pilot RCT, feasibility RCT, pilot trial, preliminary RCT	crossover RCT, crossover trial, within-subject RCT, AB/BA crossover design
Correlati	5	5
Sintesi	A pilot randomized controlled trial (pilot RCT) is a small-scale, fully randomized experiment conducted before a definitive RCT to test the feasibility of study procedures, estimate key parameters such as recruitment rates and effect-size variability, and identify practical barriers. It uses the same randomization, intervention, and measurement protocol as the planned full trial but on a fraction of the target sample. The goal is not to confirm efficacy but to refine and justify the main trial design.	A crossover randomized controlled trial (crossover RCT) is an experimental design in which each participant receives all study interventions in a randomized sequence, separated by a washout period. Because every participant serves as their own control, within-subject variability is eliminated from the treatment comparison, yielding greater statistical power per participant than a parallel-group RCT of equal size.