-of-1 trials are experiments in which patients are systematically allocated to repeated episodes of treatment with interventions, typically pharmaceuticals, whose effects are being compared. Traditionally, n-of-1 trials have been analysed independently on a patient by patient basis but this four-lecture course will consider the design and analysis of sets of n-of-1 trials, that is to say involving many patients, with various objectives, for example, not only to study the average effects of treatments but also to identify differences in individual response.

The emphasis of the course will be practical and philosophical and mathematical development will be kept to a minimum. Analysis in R, SAS and Genstat will be covered.

This webinar will introduce the topic and consider some relevant history. This session will concentrate on using n-of-1 trials to estimate average treatment effects and will consider both randomisation approaches and fixed linear models.