Freely accessible software for recruitment prediction and recruitment monitoring of clinical trials: A systematic review

Freely accessible software for recruitment prediction and recruitment monitoring of clinical trials: A systematic review

Blog Article

Background: The successful completion of clinical trials ultimately depends on realistic recruitment predictions.Statistical methods for recruitment prediction implemented in a free-of-charge open-source software could be routinely used by researchers worldwide to design clinical trials.However, the availability of such software implementations is currently unclear.Methods: Two independent reviewers conducted a systematic review following PRISMA guidelines.

Eligible articles included English publications focused on statistical methods for recruitment prediction and monitoring that referred to software implementations.The list of articles retrieved from well-established data bases was enriched by backtracking of references provided ngetikin by eligible articles.The current software availability and open-source status were tabulated.Results: We found 21 eligible articles, 7 of which (33 %) provide freely accessible software.

Ultimately, only one article provides a link to an easy-to-comprehend, well-documented, and currently directly applicable free-of-charge open-source software.The lack of availability is mainly caused by blocked access and outdated links.Conclusions: While several software implementations exist for recruitment prediction, only a small fraction is freely accessible.These results highlight the need for future efforts to achieve free access to well-documented software implementations supporting researchers in routinely using statistical methods to arrive at realistic recruitment click here predictions in clinical trials.