We discuss the exploration-exploitation dilemma and near-optimal solutions found by mathematicians.

Some relevant ressources include:

Bayesian Adaptive Methods for Clinical Trials. CRC Press. Berry, Carlin, Lee & Muller (2010).https://www.crcpress.com/Bayesian-Adaptive-Methods-for-Clinical-Trials/Berry-Carlin-Lee-Muller/p/book/9781439825488

Bayesian adaptive clinical trials: a dream for statisticians only? Statistics in Medicine. Chrevret (2011).https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/sim.4363

Multi-armed Bandit Models for the Optimal Design of Clinical Trials: Benefits and Challenges. Statistical Science. Villar, Bowden & Wason (2015)."Across this literature, the use of bandit models to optimally design clinical trials became a typical motivating application, yet little of the resulting theory has ever been used in the actual design and analysis of clinical trials."https://arxiv.org/pdf/1507.08025.pdf

Machine learning applications in drug development. Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal. Réda, Kaufmann & Delahaye-Duriez (2019).https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2001037019303988

Rethinking the Gold Standard With Multi-armed Bandits: Machine Learning Allocation Algorithms for Experiments. Kaibel & Bieman (2019)https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1094428119854153

Cancer specialists in disagreement about purpose of clinical trials. Journal of the National Cancer Institute (2012).https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-12/jotn-csi121202.php

WHO launches global megatrial of the four most promising coronavirus treatments. Science Mag. Kupferschmidt & Cohen (2020).https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/who-launches-global-megatrial-four-most-promising-coronavirus-treatments