Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: systematic review of randomised controlled trials

Marvelous piece mocking exaggerated demands for randomized experimental designs. Some journal review editors should definitely read this.

"Objectives: To determine whether parachutes are effective in preventing major trauma related to gravitational challenge. ... It is a truth universally acknowledged that a medical intervention justified by observational data must be in want of verification through a randomised controlled trial. ... Results: We were unable to identify any randomised controlled trials of parachute intervention. Conclusions: As with many interventions intended to prevent ill health, the effectiveness of parachutes has not been subjected to rigorous evaluation by using randomised controlled trials. Advocates of evidence based medicine have criticised the adoption of interventions evaluated by using only observational data. We think that everyone might benefit if the most radical protagonists of evidence based medicine organized and participated in a double blind, randomised, placebo controlled, crossover trial of the parachute".

(via the social science statistics blog)