Thread by @MRCNIHRTMRP

Adaptive designs, and other innovative approaches, provide great benefits but are also more complex to run. In 2019, the Adaptive Designs Working Group started investigating what extra resource Clinical Trials Units (CTUs) might need to support #adaptivedesigns. (1/7)

Funded by the @NIHRresearch @UKCTUNetwork CTU Support Fund and led by Newcastle CTU, the “Costing Adaptive Trials (CAT)’ project set about answering this question. Step 1 was a snazzy logo. (2/7)

We then did a mock costing exercise. Seven CTUs agreed to cost five trial scenarios - each based on a real trial. For each, we outlined a non-adaptive and adaptive version. CTUs returned the staff resource and other costs that they’d put in a funding application. (3/7)

After these were returned, we organised interviews with staff who did the costings. This was to explore reasons in variability between different types of adaptive design and to help us develop guidance. (4/7)

In January we held a meeting with co-investigators and CTU representatives to discuss the results. Now we’re in the final stretch of writing up the results and our recommended guidance (ETA end of March). (5/7)

Thanks to everyone involved (many people, but people whose twitter handle I am aware of): @ChristinaBYap @divnotna88 @Flight_LG @HockadayAnna @JMSWason @LeedJulia @mattsydes @mdimairo @thomas_jaki @SofiaSVillar1 (6/7)

More details of the research plan at: newcastle-biostatistics.com/methodology_re… (7/7)