Rater training is a term used in the pharmaceutical industry when raters, or those who administer the training at the sites, are trained to rate properly. This can result in inter-rater or intra-rater reliability.
Many times rater training is used in subjective trials, such as in CNS studies. Studies dealing with such indications as pain, mental disease or mood are not able to easily track progress with physical or physiological testing, rather, verbal subjective human testing is used. This can allow for an array of differences in rating.
When conducting global clinical trials, ensuring consistency is most important but can prove to be quite challenging.