title: Editorial Commentary: Planting a Tree to Create the Shade--Performing Quality Long-term Studies Requires Forethought.
abstract: Forecasting the future questions that need to be answered while collecting prospective data makes the design of long-term studies challenging. But, with the current focus in health care to report outcomes, more information will now be prospectively collected, likely providing the necessary data to more critically analyze our results with higher-level of evidence studies.
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Feldman
mesh_terms: D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014197:Trees