REPLY
Clinical Trial Acronyms
Michael Berkwits, MD
4 December 2001 | Volume 135 Issue 11 | Pages 1005-1006
IN RESPONSE:
Dr. Roda makes the important point that acronyms were a part of medicine long before their proliferation in clinical trials. Used to designate symptoms (DOE), diagnoses (ROMI), therapies (BIDS) (1), procedures (CABG), even the medical record itself (SOAP), they are inescapable elements of patient care. Physicians' long familiarity with the form of acronyms and with the practice of using them to convey medical information is a key condition underlying their continued use as names for clinical trials. Synergy with the commercial practice of naming for product placement or effect may have initially been (and in many instances may continue to be) accidental. Still, abbreviations that facilitate communication about patient care theoretically benefit patients. It is less clear that clinical trial acronyms do the same, and the question of what names like MIRACL (2) and MAGIC (3) are telling us when used for trials testing specific products remains a worthy one. Put another way, students starting their clinical rotations can be astonished at the variety of abbreviations in the medical record and spend considerable time learning what they mean. I have attempted to remind readers of that element of surprise by calling attention to a phenomenon that, because of its origins in clinical practice and incremental growth in the literature, we never confronted and evaluated in a similar way.
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Author and Article Information
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University of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, PA 19103
1. Riddle MC, Hart JS, Bouma DJ, Phillipson BE, Youker G. Efficacy of bedtime NPH insulin with daytime sulfonylurea for subpopulation of type II diabetic subjects Diabetes Care. 1989;12:623-9. [PMID: 2507265].[Abstract]
2. Schwartz GG, Oliver MF, Ezekowitz MD, Ganz P, Waters D, Kane JP, et al. Rationale and design of the Myocardial Ischemia Reduction with Aggressive Cholesterol Lowering (MIRACL) study that evaluates atorvastatin in unstable angina pectoris and in non-Q-wave acute myocardial infarction Am J Cardiol. 1998;81:578-81. [PMID: 9514453].[Medline]
3. Rationale and design of the magnesium in coronaries (MAGIC) study: A clinical trial to reevaluate the efficacy of early administration of magnesium in acute myocardial infarction. The MAGIC Steering Committee Am Heart J. 2000;139:10-4. [PMID: 10618556].[Medline]
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