Shaun Treweek
streweek.bsky.social
Shaun Treweek
@streweek.bsky.social

Professor of Health Services Research, Health Services Research Unit, University of Aberdeen; trying to make trials more efficient http://trialforge.org

Public Health 38%
Medicine 18%

From 1st Jan 2026 the journal Trials will mandate that authors present information about the age, sex, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and geographical location of expected and actual participants in their protocols and trial results.

trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Who is in your trial? Improving the reporting of participant characteristics in trial protocols and results - Trials
trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com

Reposted by Shaun Treweek

Don't miss out on your chance to attend this years #Edinburgh #ClinicalTrial Management Course on 06 & 07 Nov 2025- Register here edin.ac/3RGb0mB #ECTMC25 @streweek.bsky.social @bleedingstroke.bsky.social @ace-aberdeen.bsky.social @merrij.bsky.social

Reposted by Shaun Treweek

5/5 We are long over due it being time to act to answer Doug Altman's call from 31 years ago for "less research, better research, and research done for the right reasons".
www.bmj.com/content/308/...
trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
@streweek.bsky.social

Reposted by Shaun Treweek

📣 Our @streweek.bsky.social is lead author on an editorial in #Trials outlining a new mandate in the journal - mandating the reporting of six key participant characteristics in any protocol/trial report submitted to Trials on or after 1st Jan 2026. 1/2
trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

I'm unsure. But evaluating what we do seems sensible. And perhaps we should bundle things a bit more in SWATs so that we evaluate a broader strategy rather than a single component of strategy, sometimes at least.

From 1st Jan 2026, the journal Trials will mandate reporting of (at least) six participant characteristics for both protocols and reports of trial results. Read more in the editorial:

trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

@ukcrc-ctu.org.uk @ecrin.bsky.social
Who is in your trial? Improving the reporting of participant characteristics in trial protocols and results - Trials
trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com

It's Red4Research Day today!

Thanks to everyone – research participants, patients, professionals, volunteers and regulatory bodies – working together to do health and social care research.

rdforum.nhs.uk/red4research...

#Red4Research

A couple of Studies Within A Trial (SWATs), one results, one a protocol, just out in the journal Trials:

trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Reposted by Shaun Treweek

🎉 Stage 2 is LIVE - where YOU get to decide the People's favourite question!

➡️ If you're joining The People's Review for the first time sign-up here: buff.ly/kAuYITA

➡️ If joined us for Stage 1 you can login in directly to Cochrane Crowd here: buff.ly/q0WudTM

The Edinburgh Clinical Trial Management Course, Nov 6th and 7th 2025 in Edinburgh, is now open for bookings:

clinical-research-facility.ed.ac.uk/edinburgh-cl...

We’re bombarded with health advice 24/7. Systematic reviews help cut through the noise—but most people don’t know what they are.

💥 That’s where #ThePeoplesReview comes in. Learn about systematic reviews, by doing a systematic review

🔗https://www.thepeoplesreview.ie/join-now

Reposted by Shaun Treweek

To kick off #MethodologyMonday in May, we bring you a poignant article by the Editors in Chief of the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. They address the “elephant in the room”, the upheaval of the global evidence research eco-systems pursued by the US administration.
www.jclinepi.com/article/S089...

Reposted by Shaun Treweek

💻 Come along to our next Capacity Strengthening Hub webinar with @tghn-news.bsky.social to hear about experts' experience, general principles and a practical framework for communicating #ClinicalTrials results with participants.

🗓️ 2 June
🕙 10:00-11:30 BST
📍 Online

Register now: bit.ly/4k28ALd

Reposted by Shaun Treweek

We spoke with @streweek.bsky.social about why so much health research still falls short. Shaun argues that big parts of health research is “bad” & does not bring the needed value to the evidence-base. Tune in to learn how we can conduct “good” research for our patients 🎙️!

We’re bombarded with health advice 24/7. 😵‍💫 Systematic reviews help cut through the noise—but most people don’t know what they are.

💥 That’s where #ThePeoplesReview comes in. Learn about systematic reviews, by doing a systematic review

www.thepeoplesreview.ie
A major update to the CONSORT reporting guidance for clinical trials was published last week.
📌 CONSORT 2025 replaces all previous versions and should be used from now on.
So what’s new and what’s different? 1/7
#MethodologyMonday #116
(COI - I am a co-author)

Reposted by Shaun Treweek

This literature review identified strategies to enhance the racial & ethnic diversity of breast cancer trial populations. It resulted in 8 key strategic themes, which were used to create a new Racial and Minority Growth model.
#MethodologyMonday
Scott & Westwell
orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/17...
orca.cardiff.ac.uk

Reposted by Shaun Treweek

🚨We are thrilled that our protocol has been selected as the article of the month in Research Involvement and Engagement.

Full article here: researchinvolvement.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

#ThePeoplesReview #PoweredByThePublic #ArticleOfTheMonth

Reposted by Shaun Treweek

We have just created a library of participant information leaflets for trials, over 200, if you are looking for inspiration.

Check out:

www.trialforge.org/excelsior-pi...

The is part of EXCELSIOR, a project ed by Frances Shiely at Cork University.

Many thanks! I hope that you are well, and having the same lovely weather that we are.

Today has been lovely, a grant was funded, had a couple of very productive and enjoyable meetings, got some stuff off my To Do list and the sun is shining. If a red squirrel came to the bird feeder at tea-time, that really would be the cherry on the top.

Reposted by Shaun Treweek

🆕Paper📢
In their follow-up study in ‘Tolerating bad health research’, Shaun Treweek and colleagues conducted risk of bias assessment of 140 UK, Irish and Canadian trials. Despite the bad trials (55%), trials judged to be good increased from 9% to 16%.
trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Tolerating bad health research (part 2): still as many bad trials, but more good ones too - Trials
Background We previously published a study examining the risk of bias of a random selection of Cochrane systematic reviews. The purpose of our current study is to reassess the risk of bias of a cohort...
trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com

Reposted by Shaun Treweek

Many thanks to @vcornelius.bsky.social and @gsmaclennan.bsky.social for coming to Cork and sharing their wisdom on clinical trials today.

Tolerating bad health research (part 2):

trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

In summary, after risk of bias reassessment of 140 UK, Irish and Canadian trials, there were still as many bad trials (55%) but trials judged to be good increased from 9% to 16%.

Not very reassuring really.
Tolerating bad health research (part 2): still as many bad trials, but more good ones too - Trials
Background We previously published a study examining the risk of bias of a random selection of Cochrane systematic reviews. The purpose of our current study is to reassess the risk of bias of a cohort...
trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com

Reposted by Shaun Treweek

Understanding colorectal cancer screening behaviour is key to increasing uptake.

In our latest issue, a recent trial evaluates the impact of two behavioural interventions on uptake of FIT colorectal screening.

Find this & more 👉 tinyurl.com/y9sjj4hc

Here's a new risk of bias tool for systematic reviews: ROBUST-RCT

www.bmj.com/content/388/...

Similar to an older Cochrane risk of bias tool, it looks like something that could actually be used, which is great. The team explicitly aimed to balance simplicity and methodological rigour.

Reposted by Shaun Treweek

Here's an interesting rapid review on strategies to enhance the ethnic diversity of breast cancer clinical drug trials. It gives some trial recruitment and retention recommendations too.

www.academia.edu/2998-7741/1/...

Reposted by Shaun Treweek

Interested in audit and feeback strategies and how they may improve healthcare practice? Then check out the updated Cochrane review on the topic, co-authored by our own Kristin Konnyu:

Audit and feedback: effects on professional practice - Ivers, N - 2025 www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10....
Audit and feedback: effects on professional practice - Ivers, N - 2025 | Cochrane Library
Select your preferred language for Cochrane reviews and other content. Sections without translation will be in English.
www.cochranelibrary.com

Oddly enough I also submitted a paper today. I will be kind and not say which.

I had all the bits ready bar two sentences and the short cover letter. It still took 1 hour 49 mins. Bonkers. Do they really need all that info at submission?

A new publication on the involvement of ethnic minority people in health and social care research priority setting from around the world.

In summary, very few countries reported the involvement of ethnic minority community members in research priority-setting.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Global Insights on the Involvement of Ethnic Minority Populations in Health and Social Care Research Priority Setting: A Systematic Scoping Review - Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
Background Representing all population groups in health and social care research is essential for generating research relevant to decision making in everyday clinical and social healthcare policy and ...
link.springer.com