New approaches to cohort selection

Abstract

Cohort selection for clinical trials is a critical component of modern medicine, yet it remains one of the most difficult, time-consuming, and expensive aspects of testing new treatments and interventions. Each clinical trial defines inclusion and exclusion criteria that de-scribe the required patient population for the trial to accurately de-termine efficacy of the treatment. These criteria can be broad, limited only to specific ages or genders, or can be very specific, re-quiring certain medications be taken in a time period, or certain intentions on the parts of the patients (ie, an intention to become pregnant).