Data and Safety Monitoring (DSMB)
An independent DSMB will assess any reports of adverse
events and will recommend to the researchers if the trial
should continue, be modified or stopped. The DSMB will
consist of three representatives from Toronto, Edmonton
and Chicago. Teleconferences will be scheduled annually.
Interpretive description (Qualitative Component)
While RCTs are the gold standard for evaluating cause
and effect relationships between interventions and pa-
tient outcomes [53] there is growing recognition that a
broader paradigmatic view of research methodologies is
necessary since RCTs do not serve well in the analysis of
the complex descriptions of human perspectives and ex-
periences [54–57]. Knowing why interventions do or do
not work is as important as knowledge of effectiveness if
interventions are to be successfully transferred into ‘real
world’ clinical settings [53, 58]. Rich contextual informa-
tion from qualitative research can provide insight into
how patient values and previous occurrences affect their
experience with the interventions, their adherence to the
study protocols, their impressions about the importance
of the outcomes achieved, and the reasons why they
choose to participate or not in clinical trials [54–57].
The three objectives of the concurrent qualitative