Emulation eligibility and strategy assignment

Align entry strategies and time-zero

Eligibility, assignment and follow-up start must align. Grace periods, repeated eligibility and cloning are optional design choices that need explicit implementations; never require future survival to qualify entry.

Flow diagram

Steps

Identify candidate episodes

Define the population and whether people can contribute repeated eligible episodes.

Assess eligibility at entry

Use only information available by the specified time zero.

Align strategy assignment

Specify treatment initiation, comparator rules and any grace period.

Choose episode implementation

Use a single baseline, sequential trials or cloning only when required and justified.

Create analysis entry definitions

Retain episode IDs, timing and overlap rules without using future survival to qualify entry.