STOPPsmart.com
STOPP

…raison d'être…

order STOPP® online by visiting STOPPsmart.comTo the uninitiated, the design of many clinical trials often seems so simple – randomly assign some patients to the experimental treatment and some to control, and when the patients have been followed long enough, analyze the data. More often than not, underneath this deceptively simple structure lies a fascinatingly complex experiment.

In the process of collaborating in the design of a trial, the statistician must make many assumptions regarding the future course of that trial.  It is tempting to make simplistic assumptions, for this requires less background research and less sophisticated mathematics. Many software packages are not designed to handle more complex assumptions, providing the statistician with yet another reason to make simplistic assumptions.

Such naive assumptions are often at odds with the real world, and their impact can be dramatic.  Inappropriate assumptions often lead to under-powered trials which in turn may lead to abandoning a promising treatment. Alternatively, the trial may appear to require too many patients, too expensive to pursue.

STOPP® software is dedicated to providing the flexibility and power to deal effectively with complex assumptions that reflect the real world, assumptions that are fundamental to the optimization of clinical trial designs.


STOPP® software was made possible by SBIR Grant Number R44CA101617 from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.