Bayesian Evaluation of Group Sequential Clinical Trial Designs
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Abstract:
Clincal trial designs often incorporate a sequential stopping rule to serve as a guide in the early termination of a study. When choosing a particular stopping rule, it is most common to examine frequentist operating characteristics such as type I error, statistical power, and precision of confi- dence intervals (Emerson, et al. [1]). Increasingly, however, clinical trials are designed and analyzed in the Bayesian paradigm. In this paper we describe how the Bayesian operating characteristics of a particular stopping rule might be evaluated and communicated to the scientific community. In particular, we consider a choice of probability models and a family of prior distributions that allows concise presentation of Bayesian properties for a specified sampling plan.
Subject Area:
Statistical Theory and Methods
Suggested Citation:
Scott S. Emerson, John M. Kittelson, and Daniel L. Gillen, "Bayesian Evaluation of Group Sequential Clinical Trial Designs" (March 9, 2005). UW Biostatistics Working Paper Series. Working Paper 242.
http://www.bepress.com/uwbiostat/paper242