title: [Controlled clinical trials before Archie Cochrane].
abstract: The James Lind Library is an excellent source for documents on the history of the controlled clinical trial. It was named after the 18th century naval surgeon James Lind who performed a multi-arm controlled clinical trial on the treatment of scurvy. Iain Chalmers is a co-founder of the James Lind Library. In his presentation at the 10th anniversary of the GCC, he told us about a number of exemplary studies with special consideration of the evolution of methods to avoid allocation bias. He particularly stressed that over the centuries many individuals from many different countries have contributed to the standard of the randomised controlled trials of our days.
authors.affiliation: Deutsches Cochrane Zentrum, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Institut für Medizinische Biometrie und Medizinische Informatik, Abteilung für Medizinische Biometrie und Statistik, Freiburg. timmer@cochrane.de
authors.forename: Antje
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Timmer
mesh_terms: D018849:Controlled Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000266:history / Q000592:standards*; D005582:Foundations / Q000266:history; D005858:Germany; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007993:Libraries, Medical / Q000266:history; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic / Q000592:standards; D009938:Organizations / Q000266:history; D018579:Patient Selection