Abstract

The technical note of Lam et al1 on the pragmatic or point-of-care clinical trial (POC-CT) design offers valuable insights into a nascent area of research in athletic training. Although the authors did an excellent job detailing the role and advantages of and considerations for the POC-CT design in athletic training, the introduction of the POC-CT is a small component of a growing approach across health care using information from “real-world” encounters for evidence generation. This approach, known as Real-World Evidence (RWE), could lead to novel applications of health care delivery and evidence generation. This commentary is intended to provide the athletic training profession with a brief, but not all-inclusive, introduction to RWE and how athletic trainers (ATs) can (1) improve the overall quality of care and (2) position the athletic training profession to better participate and contribute within the larger health care ecosystem.