Breaches of research integrity have gained considerable attention due to high-profile scandals involving questionable research practices by reputable scientists. These practices include plagiarism, manipulation of authorship, biased presentation of findings and misleading reports of significance. To combat such practices, policymakers tend to rely…

This paper reflects on the dynamic of co-developing knowledge within a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) project in the UK that set out to direct teenage and young adult Ambulatory Care. This is a service that offers cancer treatment that would have once required inpatient hospital stays. Working within a Community-of-Inquiry (CoI),…

In this paper we review the impact of DSM-III and its successors on the field of autism--both in terms of clinical work and research. We summarize the events leading up to the inclusion of autism as a "new" official diagnostic category in DSM-III, the subsequent revisions of the DSM, and the impact of the official recognition of autism…

People are inundated with popular press reports about medical research concerning what is healthy, get advice from doctors, and hear personal anecdotes. How do people integrate conflicting anecdotal and statistical information when making medical decisions? In four experiments (N = 4126), we tested how people use conflicting information to judge…

Stem cell therapy, a cutting-edge technology, aims to replace damaged cells with healthy ones. Stem cells possess the remarkable ability to multiply and differentiate into various cell types, making them ideal candidates for regenerative medicine. This therapy holds promise for treating a wide range of conditions and injuries. In this review, I…

The data produced by the scientific community impacts on academia, clinicians, and the general public; therefore, the scientific community and other regulatory bodies have been focussing on ethical codes of conduct. Despite the measures taken by several research councils, unethical research, publishing and/or reviewing behaviours still take place.…

This article shares lessons learned in applying system evaluation theory (SET) to evaluate a Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTR) funded by the National Institutes of Health. After describing how CTR support cores are intended to work interdependently as a system, the case is made for SET as the best fit for evaluating this evaluand.…

Often clinicians are interested in determining whether a subject's measurement falls within a normal range, defined as a range of values of a continuous outcome which contains some proportion (eg, 95%) of measurements from a healthy population. Several studies in the biomedical field have estimated reference ranges based on a meta-analysis of…

Reference intervals, or reference ranges, aid medical decision-making by containing a pre-specified proportion (e.g., 95%) of the measurements in a representative healthy population. We recently proposed three approaches for estimating a reference interval from a meta-analysis based on a random effects model: a frequentist approach, a Bayesian…

N-of-1 trials, a special case of Single Case Experimental Designs (SCEDs), are prominent in clinical medical research and specifically psychiatry due to the growing significance of precision/personalized medicine. It is imperative that these clinical trials be conducted, and their data analyzed, using the highest standards to guard against threats…

One of the essential skills that pharmacy students should develop is the ability to evaluate randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to assess the clinical efficacy and safety of pharmaceuticals. This study aimed to enhance the RCT evaluation skills of fifth-year pharmacy students. It employed the CASP checklist application to assess clinical studies…

New developments in the field of biomedicine can have extensive implications for society. To steer research efforts in a responsible direction, biomedical scientists should contribute to a forward-looking ethical, and societal evaluation of new developments. However, the question remains how to equip students sufficiently with the skills they need…

One of the objectives for nurse educators is to teach research and evidence-based practice concepts to undergraduate nursing students, yet a gap was noted in the literature regarding faculty experiences. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the experiences of nurse educators teaching research and evidence-based practice…

Estimation of within-trial interactions in meta-analysis is crucial for reliable assessment of how treatment effects vary across participant subgroups. However, current methods have various limitations. Patients, clinicians and policy-makers need reliable estimates of treatment effects within specific covariate subgroups, on relative and absolute…

Simulated standardized patients (SPs) are trained individuals who pose incognito as people seeking treatment in a health care setting. With the method's increasing use and popularity, we propose some standards to adapt the method to contextual considerations of feasibility, and we discuss current issues with the SP method and the experience of…