手法を比較

	前向き症例集積研究	症例集
分野	疫学	疫学
系統	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
提唱年	Late 19th century onward; formalized in modern clinical epidemiology by the 1970s–1980s	Longstanding; systematized in 20th century clinical research
提唱者	Evolved from clinical case reporting traditions in 19th–20th century medicine	Historical clinical practice; formalized in modern evidence-based medicine literature
種類	Observational study design	Observational descriptive study
原典	Meinert, C. L. (1996). Clinical Trials: Design, Conduct, and Analysis. Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0195035681	Case series. Wikipedia.
別名	prospective case series study, forward-looking case series, prospective uncontrolled study, prospective observational case series	case series report, clinical case series, consecutive case series, patient series
関連	5	5
概要	A prospective case series is an observational study design in which a group of patients with a particular condition, exposure, or intervention is identified in advance and followed forward in time according to a pre-specified protocol. Data on outcomes, adverse events, and clinical course are collected as they occur, yielding higher data quality and temporal clarity than retrospective designs. No control group is included, so causal inference is limited, but the design is valuable for characterizing natural disease history, early safety signals, and feasibility of new interventions.	A case series is a descriptive observational study that documents the characteristics, clinical course, and outcomes of a group of patients who share a common condition, exposure, or intervention. Unlike case reports, which focus on a single patient, a case series aggregates data across multiple patients (typically three or more) to identify patterns, generate hypotheses, and characterize rare or novel conditions — without a concurrent control group.