Target trial emulation (TTE) is an approach to help facilitate causal inferences from an observational study. In the TTE paradigm, we try to emulate a randomized trial with data from an observational study. In doing so, we have to consider things like inclusion/exclusion criteria, treatment strategies, outcome measures, and the statistical analysis plan.
TTE can be a useful approach for estimating causal effects when it’s impractical to conduct an RCT.