The Oxford-Berlin partnership for enhancing measurement in clinical trials

The Oxford-Berlin partnership for enhancing measurement in clinical trials is a collaboration between clinical trialists at the Surgical Intervention Trials Unit (NDORMS) and measurement scientists at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.

Our aims are to:

• Evaluate current measurement practices in clinical trials, with a particular focus on the use of patient-reported outcome measures

• Translate relevant advances in psychometrics and metrological science to the field of clinical trial methodology

• Promote best measurement practices, and support trialists in the selection and interpretation of outcome measures

• Develop new techniques for collecting and interpreting patient-centred outcome measurements

Some examples of our work include:

• Reviewing the quality of measurement instruments used in taxpayer-funded clinical trials

• Modernising existing outcome measures through item response theory

• Exploring the potential for psychometric sensitivity analyses to enhance our confidence in trial results

• Developing computerised adaptive tests to reduce response burden in clinical trials

• Creating common metrics for health constructs that might help researchers to pool results from studies that use different outcome measures.

We are very grateful to have received funding and support for this partnership from Oxford in Berlin and the Rosetrees Trust, without whom our work would not be possible.

If you would like to learn more about our work or join our collaboration, please contact conrad.harrison@ndorms.ox.ac.uk. 

Measurement scientists Gregor Liegl and Constantin Yves Plessen studying the psychometric properties of the Oxford Knee Score

Felix Fischer (Charité) and Conrad Harrison (Oxford) during a research trip to Berlin