Do you plan to evaluate an intervention? Would you like to learn more about the most reliable way to undertake an RCT? From among the most experienced triallists in the world? In December a team of triallists from all over the world will be gathering in Cape Town, to discuss ways of improving the design, con- duct, use and usefulness of RCT's. All are members of the PRACTIHC group, a European Union project to develop techniques for widening the use of pragmatic RCT's in health care decision-making. As part of this meeting the group will be offering a training course in RCT con- duct, from the 6th to the 8th of December. The course is designed for people, who may not have yet conducted an RCT, or who wish to deepen their knowledge. The course is open to all. There is no cost for the training course itself for participants from developing countries. The course fee for developed country par- ticipants, or employees of agencies able to sponsor such training will be R5000. Participants will in general be expected to cover their own travel, subsistence and accommodation costs. Bursaries to cover travel, accommodation and meals may be available to partici- pants working in South Africa, sponsored by the South African Depart- ment of Arts Culture, Science and Technology. The course will cover all the stages of designing a trial and prepar- ing a protocol. The structure of the course will follow that logic, and participants are expected to bring along a question which they wish to use as the basis of an RCT. The learning objectives of this course are to familiarise participants with the purpose, terminology and concepts of randomised controlled trials, and to encourage them to undertake trials which are relevant to priority health and health care problems. The focus is on pragmatic trials, which are RCT's that evaluate the impact of interventions under real world conditions. We will discuss formulation of the trial question, selection criteria for patients and for other study units, sample size estimation, re- cruitment, randomisation , blinding, outcome measurement, and data collection. We will look at ways of increasing the relevance of tri- als to health care policies, ethical issues and informed consent, and variations in design (cluster randomised, factorial and balanced block). We will discuss data analysis although the course will not be intensely statistical, rather focusing on conceptual issues. We will also deal with economic evaluations associated with trials, qualitative research and its role in design of interventions and their evaluation alongside RCT's, and questions of logistics, organi- sation, teambuilding , consumer participation and seeking funding. You may be thinking about a drug trial, or an intervention in schools, a trial of a new policy on hospital discharge, or a new sur- gical procedure. Our faculty has experts in all of these areas! Fac- ulty members come from a wide range of institutions, in developing and developed countries. From research institutes in Argentina, Nor- way, Colombia, South Africa, Sweden and Cuba. From the Universities of Oxford, the Free State and Aberdeen. The course begins on December 6th, and ends at 4pm on December 8th. It is intended as a residential course, in an attractive venue di- rectly off a beach, 30km from Cape Town. The cost of accommodation and meals is not yet finalised, but is less than R650 per day.. Enquiries or applications by email to mandy: mailto:alomo@mrc.ac.za or Fax to Merrick Zwarenstein +27-21-938-0483. Information to be included in the application: Name: Address: Email: Fax: Phone: Current employment: Employer: Previous experience of evaluation research: Possible trial that you might conduct (reason for wanting to attend this training): Can you cover the costs of attending this course? Airfare Accommodation Course fee Reason for applying for bursary: