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Frazier and Mosteller assert that medical researchcould be improved by a move toward larger,simpler clinical trials ofmedical treatments. Currently, researchers collect far more back groundinformation on patients than is strictly required for their trials—substantiallymore than hospitals collect—thereby escalating costs of data collection,storage, and analysis. Althoughlimiting information collection could increase the risk that researchers willoverlook facts relevant to a study, Frazier and Mosteller contend that suchrisk, never entirelyeliminable from research, would still be small in most studies. Only in research on entirelynew treatments are new and unexpected variables likely to arise.

Frazier and Mosteller propose not only that researchers limit data collection on individual patients butalso that researchers enroll more patients in clinical trials, thereby obtaining a more representative sample ofthe total population with the disease under study. Often researchers restrictstudy participation to patients who have no ailments besides those beingstudied. A treatment judged successful under theseideal conditions can then be evaluated under normal conditions. Broadening therange of trial participants, Frazier and Mosteller suggest, would enableresearchers to evaluate a treatment’s efficacy for diverse patients undervarious conditions and to evaluate its effectiveness for different patientsubgroups. For example,the value of a treatment for a progressive disease may vary according to a patient’s stage ofdisease. Patients’ ages may also affect a treatment’s efficacy.

101. It can be inferred from the passage that a studylimited to patients like those mentioned in lines 21–23 would have which of thefollowing advantages over the kind of study proposed by Frazier and Mosteller?

(A) It would yield more data and itsfindings would be more accurate.

(B) It would cost less in the long term, though it

would be more expensive in its initial stages.

(C) It would limit the number ofvariables researchers would need to consider when evaluating the treatment under study.

(D) It would help researchers to identify subgroups ofpatients with secondary conditions that might also be treatable.

(E) It would enable researchers to assess the value ofan experimental treatment for the average Patient.