Pragmatic clinical studies utilise clinical registers and data systems to randomise patients in routine clinical practice, aiming to establish real evidence based on patients in genuine clinical settings.
In Sweden, the Uppsala Clinical Research Centre has demonstrated the significant potential of pragmatic studies by using the Swedish national quality registers as a platform, resulting in several groundbreaking articles in The New England Journal of Medicine. Unfortunately, due to a lack of formal collaboration, Norway has not contributed to these important studies. In 2023, we established the Centre for Pragmatic Clinical Studies at Akershus University Hospital. The centre's leader, Associate Professor Magnus Nakrem Lyngbakken, is a leading young researcher in Norway in the field of pragmatic studies. He has already been responsible for the pragmatic NO COVID-19 study, which resulted in two publications in Nature Communications. Until recently, Lyngbakken was the head of the working group for pragmatic studies in the Norwegian Clinical Research Infrastructures Network (NorCRIN), a collaboration among all university hospitals in Norway related to clinical studies, with funding of 50 million kroner from the Research Council of Norway in 2020. The centre's goal is to deliver high-quality clinical studies that directly impact patient outcomes and decision-making.
