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meeting ID: 937 6054 7545

password: 946296

Abstract:

Randomization is a crucial component of an experimental design in general and clinical trials in particular. Using adequate randomization methods is therefore an important prerequisite in conducting a clinical trial. Many procedures have been proposed for the random assignment of participants to treatment groups in clinical trials. Various restricted randomization techniques such as permuted block design, biased coin design, urn design or big stick design as well as covariate-adaptive and response-adaptive randomization can be found in the literature. I will discuss the performance of different restricted randomization techniques regarding their treatment balance behavior and allocation randomness.
However, it is not only important to have different techniques available but also to have suitable software to allow use of these techniques in practice. I will present a web-based randomization tool for multi-centre clinical studies (“Randomizer” – www.randomizer.at) which was developed by the Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Documentation, Medical University of Graz, Austria. This tool facilitates efficient management of the randomization process including allocation concealment, stratification, audit trails etc. and can also be used for simulation of different randomization designs.