PANDA: A practical Adaptive & Novel Designs and Analysis toolkit

PANDA is an online, open‑access toolkit designed to improve practical knowledge and uptake of adaptive designs in randomised clinical trials. Developed by a collaboration led by the University of Sheffield, it targets multidisciplinary trial teams including statisticians, clinicians, trial managers, data managers, health economists and grant reviewers.

The site is organised by adaptive design type, with dedicated sections for:

• Sample size re‑estimation (SSR)
• Group sequential design (GSD)
• Multi‑arm multi‑stage (MAMS) designs
• Adaptive population enrichment (APE)
• Response adaptive randomisation (RAR)

Each section provides plain‑language explanations of the design, its aims, advantages and limitations, alongside links to further reading and software resources where available. General pages describe the rationale for adaptive designs, considerations when choosing a design, and key issues in planning, conducting, monitoring, analysing and reporting adaptive trials.

PANDA also points users to supporting materials such as:

• Case studies and examples illustrating how adaptive trials have been implemented
• Statistical software tools and packages for design and analysis
• Guidance to enhance reporting and communication of adaptive trials
• Outputs from related projects on the economics of adaptive trials (e.g. ENACT)

The website allows self‑paced navigation: users can start with introductory explanations or go directly to the design type that matches their planned trial. For investigator‑initiated studies, PANDA is particularly useful when exploring complex or innovative designs, helping teams understand whether an adaptive approach is appropriate, which type to consider, and what expertise and resources are required.