In addition to saving time and resources, such a design feature can reduce study participants' exposure to an inferior or useless treatment.
[1][2] The methods described by Pocock[3][4] and O'Brien & Fleming,[5] among others,[6][7][8] are popular implementations of group sequential testing for clinical trials.
[citation needed] The second Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial (MADIT II) was conducted to help better identify patients with coronary heart disease who would benefit from an ICD.
MADIT II is the latest in a series of trials involving the use of ICDs to improve management and clinical treatment of arrhythmia patients.
The Antiarrhythmics versus Implantable Defibrillators (AVID) Trial compared ICDs with antiarrhythmic-drug therapy (amiodarone or sotalol, predominantly the former) in patients who had survived life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias.