Module 3.5 Applicability
Published results apply to the patients participating in the clinical trial.
How similar are those patients to your patient population or your individual patient?
Consider each of the questions below to explore aspects of applicability.
Have you considered the characteristics of the patients in the clinical trial, and the setting of the clinical trial?
- Would your patient have been eligible for the clinical trial?
- If not, what important characteristics are different?
- Would these characteristics make an intervention less effective? More toxic?
- Consider factors such as social status, economic circumstances, patients’ geographic location, sex, gender, ethnicity, disability, or sexual orientation. (1)
- Ethnicity may be important in drug metabolism and toxicity, as well as prognosis.
- Patient selection may be important for treatment efficacy – consider whether you have access to the diagnostic tests or technology to select patients who will benefit from the intervention.
1 World Health Organisation [Internet]. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO; c2026. Health equity; [last updated 2021 Jul 7; cited 2026 Feb 4]. Available from https://www.who.int/health-topics/health-equity
Is the intervention available in your setting?
- Ask yourself if the intervention is PBS listed, or Medicare reimbursed.
- Consider whether the diagnostic technology is available.
- Ensure that medical, dental, or allied health staff have the right training to carry out the intervention safely and effectively.
- Check whether your laboratory can perform the diagnostic test accurately and within a good time frame.
Are the other concurrent treatments and supportive care standards in your setting?
What else did the study incorporate that may not be standard in your setting?
- Perhaps the intervention required a week-long inpatient stay when this is not feasible in your institution.
- Maybe an antidepressant treatment was used with intensive counselling interventions that are not available to your patients because of cost.
