Advancing Bayesian Methods in Clinical Trials

In part 1 of recent Applied Clinical Trials video interview series, David Morton, PhD, director of biostatistics at Certara, explains why Bayesian statistical methods are becoming increasingly influential in the design and analysis of clinical trials. Bayesian approaches differ from traditional statistics by combining prior information (such as data from earlier studies or real-world evidence) with new trial data to update beliefs about a treatment’s effects in real time. These methods can make trials more efficient and flexible — especially when working with small patient populations or rare diseases — by reducing sample sizes and enabling adaptive decisions as results emerge.