How to communicate results from adaptive studies simple, but still correct

Adaptive designs let us learn earlier, stop smarter, and protect patients—but they also make communication tricky. In this episode, Kaspar Rufibach and I dig into what “still correct” looks like when you try to explain results from group-sequential and other adaptive trials to regulators, clinicians, and scientific audiences. We unpack conditional vs. unconditional bias, median-unbiased estimation, stage-wise ordering for p-values, confidence intervals in multi-stage settings, and what to do with secondary endpoints and multiplicity. We also touch on ICHE20 (Adaptive Clinical Trials) and why pre-specification isn’t just a box-tick—it’s what builds trust.