Researched
Randomized controlled trial
The 1948 streptomycin trial, designed by Bradford Hill, made random assignment the standard test of whether a treatment works.
Open in the interactive tree →The British Medical Research Council's trial of streptomycin for tuberculosis (reported 1948), designed by Austin Bradford Hill, assigned patients by random numbers sealed in envelopes so that neither doctors nor patients could bias the groups. The method borrowed R.A. Fisher's randomization from agricultural experiments. Randomized trials are now the gold standard for approving drugs and vaccines.
Prerequisites
Unlocks
- Polio vaccines1955
- Statins and heart prevention1987
- mRNA technology2020Randomized phase 3 trials proved the vaccines worked