Abstract
Archie Cochrane popularised the term Randomised Controlled Trial [2] but RCTs date back to the 1940s [3,4] when the Medical Research Council reported trials on the use of streptomycin in pulmonary tuberculosis [5] and the use of whooping-cough vaccination [6]. The first well documented randomised controlled trial of medical treatment may have been that organised by the Medical Research Council and reported in 1948 [3]. However, Armitage has described a possible RCT with group randomisation dating from 1662 [3] and R A Fisher introduced randomised trials in agricultural research in 1926 [3].
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© 1996 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Bulpitt, C.J. (1996). The History of Controlled Trials. In: Randomised Controlled Clinical Trials. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6347-1_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6347-1_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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