I was recently amazed to be engaged in a Twitter kerfuffle which generated more than 10,000 Impressions within 24 hours. Passions were running high, libellous comments were being broadcast, and old friendships seemed to be at breaking point. The issue? The ethics of preserving endothelial (im)permeability. This Post reflects my current perspective on things; I think I am open-minded enough to reconsider my position, so please feel free to comment. I promise, no flaming if I disagree.

When the signal for life-saving is loud and the harms are unknown but likely to be minor, the first concern of the statistician or research clinician must be to minimise or ideally prevent further untreated deaths in pursuit of probability estimates. The RCCT is the purest and most persuasive tool we have, but not at any cost.

Read More