Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are considered the gold standard for evaluating health care technologies. RCTs involve randomly assigning participants into experimental and control groups to receive different interventions. This randomization helps reduce bias. The key steps of RCTs include developing a protocol, selecting and randomizing study populations, implementing the intervention/manipulation, following up with participants, and assessing outcomes. RCTs can be single, double, or triple blinded depending on who is unaware of group assignments. Types of RCTs include clinical trials, preventive trials, and risk factor trials. RCTs use randomization as the central feature to obtain comparable groups and draw valid conclusions about interventions.