Researchers at The Ottawa Hospital are continuing to lead the way in developing research reporting guidelines, with new guidance for cluster randomized crossover (CRXO) trials published in The BMJ. 

These types of trials, which are advantageous because they can reduce the costs of the research, randomize clusters of individuals, such as hospitals or clinics, rather than individual patients. Clusters receive all of the interventions being tested over separate periods of time. CRXO trials are well suited to testing how a new standard of care, guideline recommendation, or hospital-wide change affects patient outcomes. 

The new guidance in The BMJ, led by Dr. Joanne McKenzie from Monash University, is an extension of the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement led by Dr. David Moher in 1996 and endorsed by more than 500 biomedical journals. 

Several researchers at The Ottawa Hospital contributed to the new CONSORT statement for CRXO trials, including Drs. Jeremy Grimshaw, David Moher and Monica Taljaard. 

To learn more about running and reporting CRXO trials, researchers at The Ottawa Hospital can consult the Ottawa Methods Centre.

The Ottawa Hospital is a leading academic health, research and learning hospital proudly affiliated with the University of Ottawa and supported by The Ottawa Hospital Foundation.