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Clinical trials Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel vaccines, drugs, dietar ...
are often assigned contrived acronyms. Some common themes include acronyms excluding words from the acronym and including letters taken from the middle of words. It is suggested that the use of acronyms in titles is associated with a higher citation rate of research publications.


Background

Acronyms were first used to identify clinical trials in the 1970s. The first identified instance was "UGDP", an
initialism An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...
for University Group Diabetes Program. The first trial title commonly pronounced as an English-language word or words came in 1982 with the publication of "MRFIT", referring to the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial, and spoken as "Mr. Fit" or "the Mr. Fit trial". The term "acronymophilia" was coined in 1994 to refer to the overuse of acronyms in medicine. An article in the
Annals of Internal Medicine ''Annals of Internal Medicine'' is an academic medical journal published by the American College of Physicians (ACP). It is one of the most widely cited and influential specialty medical journals in the world. ''Annals'' publishes content releva ...
classified clinical trial titles into five broad groups: un-abbreviated titles;
initialisms An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...
that are not pronounced as English words;
homonyms In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones (equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definition, ...
pronounced as a recognizable English word but spelled in a novel way; descriptive medical words relating to the study topic, such as CARDIAC and RALES; medical or health words that are not related to the topic of the study, such as ALIVE or RESCUE; and other English words not related to the topic, with a wide variety of subjects, including myths, places, musical terms, animals, and space, such as ISIS, CASANOVA, and APRICOT.


Examples

A scientific study ranking acronyms was published in the ''
British Medical Journal ''The BMJ'' is a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal, published by the trade union the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Origina ...
''. Some of the negatively graded criteria include using letters that do not begin a word, and including letters in the acronym that are not found in the title. According to their metric, some of the worst names included "METGO: A 48-week, randomized, double-blind, double-observer, placebo-controlled multicenter trial of combination METhotrexate and intramuscular GOld therapy in rheumatoid arthritis", "PERFORM: Prevention of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular Events of ischaemic origin with teRutroban in patients with a history oF ischaemic strOke or tRansient ischaeMic attack", and "TYPHOON: Trial to assess the use of the cYPHer sirolimus-eluting coronary stent in acute myocardial infarction treated with BallOON angioplasty". Their ranking of acronyms shows a decrease in measured quality between 2000 and 2012. In a letter to the
International Journal of Cardiology The ''International Journal of Cardiology'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal that publishes research articles about the study and management of cardiac diseases. The journal is affiliated with the International Society for Adult Congenital Card ...
, Tsung O. Cheng called out his own field as prone to overuse of contrived acronyms, calling it a "persistent problem". He was spurred to write the letter after he reviewed nine articles about a study named "ZAHARA" without finding any explanation of what the acronym meant. Other clinical trials that have been noted in publications for their acronyms include: TORPEDO (Thrombus Obliteration by Rapid Percutaneous Endovenous Intervention (PEVI) in Deep Venous Occlusion) and BATMAN (Bisphosphonate and Anastrozole Trial – Bone Maintenance Algorithm Assessment).


See also

* CALERIE *
ALMANAC An almanac (also spelled ''almanack'' and ''almanach'') is an annual publication listing a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, tide tables, and other ...
*
PARAMOUNT trial The PARAMOUNT trial is a clinical trial studying non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). The trial was sponsored by Eli Lilly and Company and was conducted in several European countries and Canada. It was registered in November 2008 and was project ...
*
JUPITER trial The JUPITER trial (Justification for the Use of Statins in Primary Prevention: An Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin trial) was a clinical trial aimed at evaluating whether statins reduce heart attacks and strokes in people with normal chole ...
* PROVE-IT TIMI 22 * RECOVERY trial


References

{{reflist


External links


The ACRONYM (Alternatives for Circumvention of Restrictions On Naming BY Trialists of Their Manuscripts) Report, J Med Humanit 2013
Medical phenomena Clinical trials Naming conventions