title: Benchmarking Controlled Trial--a novel concept covering all observational effectiveness studies.
abstract: The Benchmarking Controlled Trial (BCT) is a novel concept which covers all observational studies aiming to assess effectiveness. BCTs provide evidence of the comparative effectiveness between health service providers, and of effectiveness due to particular features of the health and social care systems. BCTs complement randomized controlled trials (RCTs) as the sources of evidence on effectiveness. This paper presents a definition of the BCT; compares the position of BCTs in assessing effectiveness with that of RCTs; presents a checklist for assessing methodological validity of a BCT; and pilot-tests the checklist with BCTs published recently in the leading medical journals.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health and Social Economics, National Institute for Health and Welfare , Helsinki , Finland.
authors.forename: Antti
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Malmivaara
mesh_terms: D000288:Administrative Personnel; D019985:Benchmarking / Q000379:methods*; D057186:Comparative Effectiveness Research / Q000379:methods*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis / Q000379:methods; D054625:Healthcare Disparities; D006801:Humans; D064887:Observational Studies as Topic / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards
keywords: benchmarking controlled trial; cost-effectiveness; effectiveness; inequality; real-effectiveness medicine