Abstract:
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The sequential multiple assignment randomized trial (SMART) design includes multiple stages of randomization, where participants are randomized to an initial treatment in the first stage and then subsequently re-randomized between treatments in the following stages. Due to potential number of reasons (e.g. measurement error, biomarker accuracy), participants in a SMART study could be misclassified at the end of the first stage based on inaccurate response from intermediate outcome, potentially resulting in re-allocation to treatments that may be harmful or inappropriate. Therefore, a tool of assessing the potential misclassification effect before carrying out a trial is needed. Based on previous analytic research, we developed a R package “SMART” to evaluate the misclassification effect on single sequential treatment (SST) and dynamic treatment regimens (DTRs) in the two-stage SMART design by visualizing the mean/variance and relative bias, and power comparison between two SSTs or between two DTRs under misclassification. Demonstrations of the package’s usefulness in study design is presented.
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