Question: What is Randomization?
Answer: Clinical trials often divide patients into two or more groups, and give different treatments or interventions to each group. This helps to directly compare different treatments and decide which is better. But who decides which group a patient should be allotted to? If it were left to a single individual, he or she might put better patients in one group and put those who are worse off in the other. In order to reduce this 'bias', patients are randomly put into one group or the other. Neither the patient nor the doctor has a say in allotment. The 'randomization' is controlled by a computer program, which often runs in a different place altogether. This helps in an even distribution of patients, and makes the findings of the study fairer and more acceptable.
