A computer program for experimental design simulation

Abstract Considerations of safety, time, finance, and ethics suggest the application of game playing to the teaching of experimental design methods. By using a computer an inexhaustible supply of subjects with varying attributes can be generated and their responses to different treatments can be monitored at any stage throughout an experiment. The effect of different designs on results and conclusions can be readily compared. We have defined the ideal features of such a simulator and written a FORTRAN IV program called Experimental Design Simulation (E.D.S.) which should find wide use in the biomedical sciences. Program design and use is illustrated with an example from a recent workshop on clinical trials.