Cohort studies (cmRCT)
Cohort studies (cmRCT)
In order to improve medical healthcare in malignancy treatment the Radiotherapy department of UMC Utrecht aims to provide an environment in which treatment strategies are under constant evaluation. In order to optimize development and innovation of therapeutic interventions both clinical and patient-reported outcomes have to be considered at the same time. In order to enable continuous implementation and evaluation of innovative treatment strategies, a large observational cohort multiple Randomized Controlled Trial design has been adopted.
The UMC Utrecht is (one of) the first center(s) worldwide to operationalize this cohort design.
Our cohorts have been designed to build an infrastructure geared towards efficient, safe and comprehensive clinical evaluation of interventions. It will serve several purposes: 1) Patient pool from which candidates for new interventions can be selected, 2) Control group against which basic outcomes of new interventions in early stages of development (IDEAL stages 1-2b) can be (informally, conveniently) compared, 3) Framework for comparative studies according to the cohort multiple Randomized Controlled Trial design, and 4) Surveillance and evaluation of clinical- and patient-related long-term outcomes.
A dutch article on the cmRCT has recently been published by the initiating epidemiologist of the UMC Utrecht.