Is it possible to apply trial outcomes to a real‐world population? A novel approach to External Validity Analysis

Abstract

Translation of findings from randomised controlled trials (RCT), the foundation of evidence‐based medicine, into clinical practice requires an understanding of relationships between patient characteristics, treatment practices and outcomes. We propose a novel technique, External Validity Analysis (EVA), to evaluate applicability of findings from a large RCT, comparing baseline characteristics, interventions and outcomes between the RCT and a large clinical database.