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Sure, annual conference gatherings like the one coming your way this April in the form of ACRP 2025 in New Orleans, La., are trustworthy providers of a multitude of continuing education opportunities through sessions, workshops, and keynote presentations, but let’s not forget the value they bring in terms of basic human contact in these times of remote and hybrid work. First-time attendees to an ACRP conference may be surprised by how much the networking moments available in the meeting rooms, corridors, exhibit hall, and special event spaces will add to their overall conference experience in both the short and long term—so some veterans of attending such functions advise newcomers to be prepared. 

Critical thinking—which is essentially careful thinking directed to a goal—is key to optimizing clinical research processes. Relying on independent and interdependent decision making, critical thinking also involves elements such as questioning, analysis, synthesis, interpretation, inference, inductive and deductive reasoning, intuition, application, and creativity.  

Rare disease clinical trials face significant challenges, and with small patient populations, leveraging innovative statistical methodologies that can enhance statistical power is crucial. The Net Treatment Benefit, estimated from the Generalized Pairwise Comparisons methodology, provides a promising solution by integrating multiple clinical outcomes into a single assessment, extracting more information from the data.

Randomized controlled clinical trials are considered the gold standard for understanding treatment safety and efficacy. Rare disease trials struggle to recruit enough participants to demonstrate efficacy, creating a barrier to research and approval. However, Bayesian statistics utilize existing evidence and expert opinion to quantify uncertainty and inform trial design, reducing necessary sample size. 

A healthy relationship between sites and sponsors is critical to the success of clinical trials, including efficient and effective management, adaptability, innovation, problem-solving, and feedback mechanisms on the parts of those involved on both sides. Clinical research associate (CRA) competencies are key to creating and nurturing this relationship under all circumstances.