Using the phases of clinical development of medicines to describe clinical trials assessing other interventions is widespread but not useful

Affiliations

• ¹ Epidemiology Unit, Health Research Institute-Fundación Jiménez Díaz University Hospital, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: rafael.dalre@quironsalud.es.
• ² Center for Health Regulatory Policies, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri - IRCCS, Milan, Italy.
• ³ Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
• ⁴ Department of Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Alcorcón, Madrid, Spain.
• ⁵ Research Center for Clinical Neuroimmunology and Neuroscience Basel (RC2NB), University Hospital Basel and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; Department of Clinical Research, University of Basel and University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland; Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS), Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA; Meta-Research Innovation Center Berlin (METRIC-B), Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany.
• ⁶ Research Center for Clinical Neuroimmunology and Neuroscience Basel (RC2NB), University Hospital Basel and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; Department of Clinical Research, University of Basel and University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
• ⁷ Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
• ⁸ Univ Rennes, CHU Rennes, Inserm, Centre d'investigation clinique de Rennes (CIC1414), Service de pharmacologie clinique, Institut de recherche en santé, environnement et travail (Irset), UMR S 1085, EHESP, Rennes, France.