The Clinical Medicine Division brings clinical science and disease-focused scholarship together with clinical education. It provides the medical review that clinically sensitive material on the platform requires before publication.
Clinical science, disease-focused scholarship, clinical education and medically reviewed content.
Verified Sterling IMRES staff will be listed here. Until then, these are the people credited on this division’s library works (not institute staff).
This Brazilian randomised trial will test whether a point-of-care ultrasound congestion score can be used to adjust diuretic therapy for people admitted with acute decompensated heart failure. Patients in the ultrasound-guided arm may receive stepped combinations of diuretics such as furosemide, hydrochlorothiazide, acetazolamide and dapagliflozin based on their scans. Outcomes are compared using a hierarchical win-ratio approach.
Building on an earlier cluster trial in Lilongwe, this Malawi-based randomised trial gives pregnant participants either xylitol-containing chewing gum or a sorbitol gum. The study asks whether improving maternal oral health with xylitol lowers rates of preterm birth and low birthweight. Child developmental outcomes are also tracked.
The SMaRT study in Ontario, Canada, evaluates a model in which nurses coordinate the care of patients with multiple chronic conditions using home telemonitoring. Patients send home measurements through the Medly platform so the care team can spot problems between visits. The study compares early death and readmission outcomes with usual care.
RECOVERY is a large randomised, open-label platform trial led by the University of Oxford that has tested many treatments for patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, and has since added influenza and community-acquired pneumonia. Its pragmatic design, with minimal data collection and a shared control group, allowed rapid answers, including the finding that dexamethasone reduced deaths. It remains a reference model for efficient trial methodology.
STAMPEDE is a long-running UK-led platform trial in men with high-risk or metastatic hormone-naive prostate cancer. It has used a multi-arm, multi-stage design to test additions such as docetaxel, abiraterone, zoledronic acid and radiotherapy against standard care, with overall survival as its main outcome. It is widely cited as an example of efficient adaptive trial methodology.
SPRINT was a large US multicentre randomised trial run by the NHLBI that compared two blood pressure targets in adults with hypertension. Participants were assigned either to an intensive systolic target or to the conventional target, and were followed for major cardiovascular events. Its main findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2015.
DPTT was a multicentre US randomised trial in adults with type 2 diabetes and moderate-to-advanced periodontitis. One group received scaling, root planing and supportive periodontal care straight away, while the other had treatment delayed. The primary result, published in JAMA in 2013, examined the effect on HbA1c.
This Phase 3 study followed a cohort of young children in Kampala, Uganda, treating each malaria episode with one of three randomised drug combinations: amodiaquine plus artesunate, amodiaquine plus sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, or artemether-lumefantrine. Following children over time allowed comparison of efficacy and safety across repeated treatments. Several results papers are linked in the registry.
This prospective observational cohort, led by Charité Berlin with sites in Germany and Spain, followed patients after acute ischaemic stroke. It combined clinical information with measurements of immune function and inflammation to see who goes on to develop pneumonia. Several papers on prediction scores and biomarkers such as IL-6 have come from the cohort.
BMJ · DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2024-081123
Cancer Discovery · DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-21-1059
The Lancet · DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00768-6
New England Journal of Medicine · DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2021436
New England Journal of Medicine · DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2034577
BMJ · DOI: 10.1136/bmj.m441
Nature Medicine · DOI: 10.1038/s41591-019-0675-0
New England Journal of Medicine · DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1911303
BMJ · DOI: 10.1136/bmj.l4185
BMJ Quality & Safety · DOI: 10.1136/bmjqs-2018-008043
BMJ Open · DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019101
BMJ Quality & Safety · DOI: 10.1136/bmjqs-2016-005567
JAMA · DOI: 10.1001/jama.2016.0287
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD001800.pub3
New England Journal of Medicine · DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1504720
New England Journal of Medicine · DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1511939
JAMA Internal Medicine · DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2015.0324
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD003793.pub3
Journal of Clinical Epidemiology · DOI: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2010.04.026
Focus areas: Evidence-based clinical practice, Interpreting clinical trials, Clinical case-based learning.
From a clinical question to a registered protocol: study designs, bias, sample size, ethics and registration.
How to find, appraise and apply evidence, including risk-of-bias tools and certainty-of-evidence ratings.
A handbook by Schünemann, Brożek, Guyatt and Oxman on rating the certainty of evidence and the strength of recommendations with the GRADE approach. It was last updated in 2013 and, according to the page, is being replaced by the newer GRADE Book, but it remains available online.
The official home of the 2025 SPIRIT checklist for trial protocols and the 2025 CONSORT checklist for reporting randomised trial results. Checklists, explanation papers and free online writing aids can all be downloaded at no cost.
An eight-module e-learning course, taking about three hours, on the updated ICH E6(R3) Good Clinical Practice guideline across the life of a trial. It is offered in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese, and learners who score at least 80% on the final quiz receive a certificate.
WHO's open learning platform, with self-paced courses on outbreaks, emergency response, infection prevention and control, clinical management and other public health topics. The courses are multilingual, work on low bandwidth, and many offer a certificate.
A WHO self-study package from 2014 with nine modules on assessing and treating sick children, covering danger signs, cough, diarrhoea, fever, malnutrition, HIV and more. It also includes a facilitator guide, implementation guidance and a logbook.
WHO's 2009 guidance on patient safety in surgery, which supports the Safe Surgery Saves Lives initiative. The 124-page document can be downloaded free in several languages.
Opportunities: Clinical review of educational and published material; Disease-focused review articles; Clinical input into research protocols.
