blockrand-package {blockrand}

Generate block randomizations for clinical trials.

Description

This package will create a block randomization for clinical trials and help with creating the randomization cards that the study coordinator can use to assign new subjects to their treatment.

Details

Package:	blockrand
Type:	Package
Version:	1.1
Date:	2008-02-02
License:	Gnu Public License Ver. 2
Copyright:	Greg Snow and Intermountain Healthcare

Currently there are 2 main functions and an optional list. The blockrand function is used to create a data frame with the block sequential treatment randomizations. When doing a stratified study you should run blockrand once for each stratum then optionally combine the different data frames with rbind. Save the data frame(s) and when the study is completed the data can be added to the data frame for analysis.

The plotblockrand function is used to create the randomization cards to be used when assigning subjects to treatment. The cards are printed out and sealed in envelopes, then when a new subject is enrolled the next envelope is opened and the subject assigned to the corresponding treatment.

You can optionally create a list named blockrand.text with optional elements top, middle, and bottom. If this list exists and you run plotblockrand without specifying these arguments, then the element of the blockrand.text list will be used instead.

Author(s)

Greg Snow [e-mail]

Maintainer: Greg Snow [e-mail]

Examples

## stratified by sex, 100 in stratum, 2 treatments
male <- blockrand(n=100, id.prefix='M', block.prefix='M',stratum='Male')
female <- blockrand(n=100, id.prefix='F', block.prefix='F',stratum='Female')

my.study <- rbind(male,female)

## Not run: 
plotblockrand(my.study,'mystudy.pdf',
   top=list(text=c('My Study','Patient: %ID%','Treatment: %TREAT%'),
            col=c('black','black','red'),font=c(1,1,4)),
   middle=list(text=c("My Study","Sex: %STRAT%","Patient: %ID%"),
               col=c('black','blue','green'),font=c(1,2,3)),
   bottom="Call 123-4567 to report patient entry",
   cut.marks=TRUE)

### or

blockrand.txt <- list(
   top=list(text=c('My Study','Patient: %ID%','Treatment: %TREAT%'),
            col=c('black','black','red'),font=c(1,1,4)),
   middle=list(text=c("My Study","Sex: %STRAT%","Patient: %ID%"),
               col=c('black','blue','green'),font=c(1,2,3)),
   bottom="Call 123-4567 to report patient entry")

plotblockrand(my.study, 'mystudy.pdf', cut.marks=TRUE)

## End(Not run)