They call the study “double masked” – I hope this means double-blinded, because otherwise the study is close to worthless since their primary outcomes are based on doctor’s behavior.
Double-masked does mean double-blinded and comes from the first studies literally using masks for blinding. Jeremy Howick does advocate in The Philosophy of Evidence-Based Medicine that it’s better to use the term double-masked because people often get confused when thinking about blinding.
People frequently think that blinding means a person doesn’t know whether or not they get the treatment, which is not how it’s operationalized. Researchers, who actually care about whether or not people know whether they get the treatment, ask their patients whether or not they think they get it.
Double-masked does mean double-blinded and comes from the first studies literally using masks for blinding. Jeremy Howick does advocate in The Philosophy of Evidence-Based Medicine that it’s better to use the term double-masked because people often get confused when thinking about blinding.
People frequently think that blinding means a person doesn’t know whether or not they get the treatment, which is not how it’s operationalized. Researchers, who actually care about whether or not people know whether they get the treatment, ask their patients whether or not they think they get it.