Randomised trials in pandemics: essential, not a luxury - April 2022

During this talk, Professor Richard Haynes (RECOVERY trial co-ordinator) will give us insights into his work on RECOVERY, the important findings from the trial and it’s future directions.
Pandemics disrupt communities and their healthcare systems, putting them under extraordinary pressure. Consequently, conducting randomised trials in these circumstances has not usually been successful, despite the urgent need for evidence to distinguish treatments with moderate benefits from treatments without benefit (which may even be harmful).
The RECOVERY trial broke this mould and was set up in 9 days in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in the UK. It has randomised over 47,000 patients and successfully identified effective treatments which have had a substantial public health impact (and also importantly identified treatments that are ineffective, thus sparing resources). RECOVERY continues to assess newer therapies for COVID-19, both in the UK and internationally.