experimental drugs. Whatever decision criterion one uses, there is always some probability that random variation in trial outcomes … defers to standard care as the status quo. To evaluate decision criteria, we use the concept of near optimality, which … jointly considers the probability and magnitude of decision errors. An appealing decision criterion from this perspective is …

This paper uses Wald's concept of the risk of a statistical decision function to address the question: How should … rules (STRs) are statistical decision functions that map observed covariates of population members and sample data on …