---
title: A Practical Guide to Sequential Design
description: Master the essentials of sequential design in clinical trials with this guide focusing on cost-efficiency and early stopping based on interim results.
---

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# [A Practical Guide to Sequential Design](https://www.statsols.com/guides/practical-guide-to-sequential-design)

 Written by [nQuery Team](https://www.statsols.com/guides/author/nquery-team) | Aug 1, 2023 5:00:00 PM

## **Practical Guide to Sequential Design **Primer on Sequential Design Methods and Design Choices

In this tutorial on [group sequential design](https://www.statsols.com/nquery/group-sequential-design), we have introduced sequential design, some of the most common design choices and issues that can arise and provided an introduction to group sequential design and the specific choices available for this class of sequential design.

#### You will learn about:

- Sequential Design Types and Overview
- Common Sequential Design Choices and Issues
- Practical Guide to (Group) Sequential Design 

## **Practical Guide to Sequential Design**

Sequential designs, where trials can stop early based on interim results, are the most widely used type of adaptive design in clinical trials.

Sequential designs can greatly reduce the potential cost of a trial by stopping early where evidence is strongly in favour (efficacy) or against (futility) the treatment at an early interim analysis. For example, the accelerated approval of [COVID-19 vaccine trials ](https://www.statsols.com/guides/design-and-sample-size-for-vaccine-trials)in 2020 was all based on sequential design approaches.

One of the most common approaches to sequential designs is [group sequential design](https://www.statsols.com/templates/group-sequential-design) based on the error spending approach. This flexible class of methods allows for a wide range of possible stopping rules while retaining substantial adaptability to deal with post-design deviations at the analysis stage. 

Watch this tutorial as we cover the important decisions you need to take when using sequential designs and provide practical guidance on commonly applied solutions.

nQuery helps make your clinical trials faster, less costly and more successful with tools for sample size calculation - refining [Frequentist](https://www.statsols.com/nquery?hsLang=en-us), [Bayesian](https://www.statsols.com/nquery/bayes?hsLang=en-us) & [Adaptive designs](https://www.statsols.com/nquery/adapt?hsLang=en-us). 

Start your [unlimited 14-day trial](https://www.statsols.com/nquery-demo) to help design efficient, informative and ethical adaptive trials.

[View full post](https://www.statsols.com/guides/practical-guide-to-sequential-design)

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