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Clinical Trial Acronyms
The Editors welcome submissions for possible publication in the Letters section. Authors of letters should:
•Include no more than 300 words of text, three authors, and five references
•Type with double-spacing
•Send three copies of the letter, an authors' form signed by all authors, and a cover letter describing any conflicts of interest related to the contents of the letter.
Letters commenting on an Annals article will be considered if they are received within 6 weeks of the time the article was published. Only some of the letters received can be published. Published letters are edited and may be shortened; tables and figures are included only selectively. Authors will be notified that the letter has been received. If the letter is selected for publication, the author will be notified about 3 weeks before the publication date. Unpublished letters cannot be returned.
Annals welcomes electronically submitted letters.
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.
The Editors welcome submissions for possible publication in the Letters section. Authors of letters should:
•Include no more than 300 words of text, three authors, and five references
•Type with double-spacing
•Send three copies of the letter, an authors' form signed by all authors, and a cover letter describing any conflicts of interest related to the contents of the letter.
Letters commenting on an Annals article will be considered if they are received within 6 weeks of the time the article was published. Only some of the letters received can be published. Published letters are edited and may be shortened; tables and figures are included only selectively. Authors will be notified that the letter has been received. If the letter is selected for publication, the author will be notified about 3 weeks before the publication date. Unpublished letters cannot be returned.
Annals welcomes electronically submitted letters.
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