A primer for clinical researchers in the emergency department: Part IV: Multicentre research

In this series we address key topics for clinicians who conduct research as part of their work in the ED. Multicentre research is conducted to enrol larger numbers of participants and improve the validity and generalisability of the findings. Little has been published outlining the practical mechanics of multicentre research in the ED. This article presents strategies for setting up, conducting and participating in multicentre studies in the Australian and international settings. We address the two major categories of multicentre research, collaborative group research based on a group of researchers from a moderate-sized number of EDs and large-scale investigator-led research where a central group of investigators leads a large pool of research sites. Although we focus on clinical trials, the basic principles also apply to multicentre observational studies.