by Carolyn Thomas    ♥  Heart Sisters on Blue Sky

Back in 2006, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study that compared ways to reduce the future risk of blocked coronary arteries in heart patients like me.(1)  In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial (translation: research that can produce reliably high-quality evidence), over 15,000 people from 32 countries were studied.

By the way, it’s worth pointing out a fun fact here:  the study published in the NEJM was a remarkable example of recruitment success. It turns out that up to 85% of all clinical trials in medicine fail to recruit or retain a sufficient sample size of participants, leading to “failure to meet research targets in 4 out of 5 trials” –  even though nearly $1.9 billion is spent on participant recruitment annually.(2) 
Continue reading “DAPT for heart patients (or why you should postpone that pedicure appointment)” →