Citing Colin Powell's "Pottery Barn" warning — if you break it, you own it — he said that the United States should have had a clearly defined method of measuring success going into the war, something like a wartime version of his Compstat program of tracking crime in New York.
Prior to the recent NAEPP guidelines, no clearly defined method was published for assigning symptom control in cross-sectional studies.
The individual nature of each AF image and the wide variation of possible combinations of features suggest that it would be impossible to develop a clearly defined method that could measure GA areas with only a few procedural steps.
Like any other businesses, this is the biggest challenge, because social enterprises exist in the space between traditional, grant-funded nonprofits and profit-maximizing businesses, they may have access to the funding options of both, but without the clearly defined methods and access of either.
Generally, that includes clearly defined methods and instructions for administration or responding, a standard format for data collection, and well-documented methods for scoring, analysis, and interpretation of results.
The APEX trial overcomes these limitations, as demonstrated by its prospective double-blind randomised design, use of a validated primary outcome measure, sufficient statistical power to detect a clinically meaningful reduction in long-term pain severity, and clearly defined methods of analysis.
Researchers are encouraged to clearly define methods of assessing exposures and health effects in their research publications to allow comparisons to be made across studies and to conduct meta-analyses of similar studies.
Current design specifications and guides do not provide clearly defined analysis methods; therefore, there is a need for easily implemented preliminary analysis and accurate two-dimensional (2D) analysis methods.
If broader institutional reform is not on the cards for now, and the next set of global development goals must take the form chosen by the panel, then all targets should be clearly defined; measurement methods should be specified, and independent experts appointed for the monitoring of tasks.
The primary aims of this multicenter observational study were to 1) explore the efficacy and safety of palliative sedation therapy, and 2) identify the factors contributing to inadequate symptom relief and complications, using a prospective study design, clearly defined measurement methods, and a consecutive sample from 21 specialized palliative care units in Japan.
But for those who do wish to accept the challenge, the Harvard project provides a clearly defined four-step method for inventing options (see sidebar).
