How is this trial organised?

Scientists and doctors consider the question being asked by LENS important because it could improve treatment for people who have diabetes by reducing the risk which retinopathy poses to vision. Scientists at the University of Oxford are co-ordinating the study with the collaboration of the Universities of Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Dundee, and with doctors and nurses from around Scotland. The trial design has been reviewed and agreed by the West of Scotland Research Ethics Committee whose duty it is to check whether the health question being asked is important enough to warrant a trial, and that the trial is being carried out in an independent, honest and professional manner.

An independent committee oversees the study and monitors the results. This committee could stop the trial early if important new evidence emerged that had an impact on the need for the trial to continue.