Gideon M-K: Health Nerd

How To Read A Randomized Trial - Part 1

One of the most important studies to understand

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Health Nerd
Jul 22, 2026
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“I’m so happy to tell you that you’re in the placebo arm. We just found out the drug causes scurvy” Photo by Accuray on Unsplash

With the popularity of my recent series looking at how to read and interpret systematic reviews and meta-analyses, I thought I’d write a bit about the second most important type of research* in the medical literature: randomized controlled trials. They are a very finicky and surprisingly complicated type of study that most people struggle to really understand, even after spending a semester in classes focused on study design. This piece is for paid subscribers only, so if you enjoy my work please do consider signing up!

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