Dr. Merrick Zwarenstein's Work is Shaping the Future of Family Medicine & Primary Care Though Innovations in Research Methodology.
Dr. Zwarenstein is a central figure in the design, development, and review of randomized trials that provide much needed evidence about interventions to improve patient care and the health care system. Merrick's unique contribution to this field is his development of tools for designing and reviewing a specific kind of randomized trial -- called a pragmatic trial. This kind of study is different from a traditional randomized trial because pragmatic trials are set in the real-world as opposed to a highly-controlled laboratory environment. Running this type of study results in findings that are directly applicable to decision making in the real-world of patient care and health care delivery.
The tools Dr. Zwarenstein has developed, including the PRECIS 1 and 2 tools, along with the CONSORT reporting guideline for pragmatic trials have been cited thousands of times. The term "pragmatic" when applied to trials has now entered the language of evaluation, and this type of study design is now being taken up widely among health care researchers. This change has made the conduct of randomized trials in family medicine and primary care more meaningful and influential, as these more pragmatic trials have findings that are more directly applicable to the real-world decisions that individuals and groups of family physicians need to make when they choose between different drugs, technologies, or workflow improvements aimed at solving a patient care or health care organizational problem.
"My most recent work with international and local teams of researchers focuses on refinements to my existing suite of tools; this will result in the creation of the PRECIS-3 tool, as well as new CONSORT and SPIRIT statements that provide guidelines on reporting randomized trials with pragmatic or explanatory intentions." M. Zwarenstein.
