Our discussion extends to both methodological issues in relation to study design and to pragmatic issues relating to the execution of RCTs.
This trial is explanatory in design in relation to the measures of process but pragmatic in terms of the comparison with usual care rather than a specified alternative group.
To help display this multidimensionality, we have developed of a tool, primarily intended to be used in designing a trial, for characterising where it will stand along the pragmatic-explanatory continuum in relation to each design decision.
In relation to the scheduled intervals of coaching calls, these were pragmatic, allowing sufficient time for patients to be reviewed by their general practitioners and for changes to their medications to be implemented.
6 Calls have been made for more pragmatic trials in general, 6 12 13 and in relation to specific clinical problems.
There is a thus an urgent need for more interventions to be tested in pragmatic trials in multimorbid populations, especially in relation to health inequalities, and for these to inform future guidelines.
The two pragmatic criteria also showed a high level of accuracy in relation to judgments based on the original five criteria (84% agreement, 67% sensitivity, 93% specificity).
What is crucial about this passage is Hempel's emphasis on the pragmatic consideration of the time at which the argument is presented in relation to the time of occurrence of the explanandum event itself.
Physicians constitute a core group in healthcare, and being pragmatic is a way to maintain a certain degree of control in relation to a strong and important profession.
43 In relation to producing usable evidence, we need to identify how to balance gold standard systematic reviews with pragmatic, rapid reviews that gain in timeliness and accessibility what they lose in depth and detail.
