Multi-centric clinic trials in evidence-based research – A narrative review on the Indian scenario

Evidence-based health care is gaining prominence since the past many decades. The ultimate goal of evidence-based medicine is providing the best available treatment to patients. The boom in pharmacy sector has seen a rapid rise in randomised controlled clinical trials. Novel medicines or diagnostic tests must be tested before introducing to the target population. Randomised controlled trials are at the top hierarchy of evidence-based health care, especially for testing newly invented drugs. The results obtained from randomised controlled trials cannot be generalised to the entire population. This has led to the evolvement of multi-centre trials in evidence-based research. Multi-centre trials can overcome the barriers associated with single-centre clinical trials. The conduct of multi-centre trials is still in a budding stage in India. Although there are many ongoing multi-centre trials in India, very few trials are conducted among the dental fraternity. The conduct of such trials has its own set of challenges involving funding, ethical committee approval, and logistic requirements. This paper will discuss the growth of multi-centre research, steps involved in conduct of multi-centre trials, and the challenges faced in conducting these trials by the dental specialists in India.