Comparative Effectiveness Research by Rogers Mary A. M

Comparative Effectiveness Research by Rogers Mary A. M

Author:Rogers, Mary A. M.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2014-03-14T16:00:00+00:00


Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis

Decision making regarding possible therapeutic choices is often enhanced by an evaluation of the evidence across many studies, all meant to address a single research question. What if you locate six trials and they all suggest a somewhat similar effect, but there is some lingering doubt about the true effect? There are ways in which such evidence can be reviewed and combined across studies. Such studies are particularly informative when they are inclusive of all evidence on a particular topic. That is, one would prefer to not selectively accept the results of just some studies, and throw out the others. Rather, one would make an attempt to review all the evidence in a meaningful fashion. There are two main types of integrative approaches that are frequently used:

¤ Systematic reviews are investigations in which evidence is assembled regarding a particular research question across all original research studies that meet specific preset criteria.

¤ A meta-analysis is a study in which the results of systematic reviews are mathematically combined.

The common method for gathering original research studies is to locate databases that serve as repositories for such studies. The Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System online (MEDLINE) is one of the databases that contains journal citations and bibliographic data related to publications in medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacology, and other health disciplines. Citations on original research articles are housed, dating from the 1940s, in this database founded by the National Library of Medicine in the United States. Searching for articles is freely available online through PubMed. Embase is another database frequently used for systematic reviews. It is a global repository of published biomedical research articles and has extensive coverage. It is particularly good in the retrieval of drug information beyond that captured for life science articles in general. The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) is another source, as are other trial registries (e.g., http://www.clinicaltrials.gov; http://apps.who.int/trialsearch/). The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and PsycINFO are additional sources used to retrieve citations of original research studies, as are Scopus and the Web of Science. Depending upon the research topic of interest, there may also be national or regional biolographic databases or subject-specific databases which can be searched. Citation indices such as Scopus or the Web of Science may also be used. For those investigators interested in searching conference proceedings for abstracts, Open Grey (http://www.opengrey.eu/) allows open access for searching the grey literature (dissertations, reports, abstracts from conferences). ProQuest (http://www.proquest.co.uk/en-UK/catalogs/databases/detail/pqdt.shtml) provides searching dissertations and theses for a fee and the National Technical Information Services provides open-access searching for technical reports (http://www.ntis.gov/). Previous published reviews may be a source for locating original research although it should not be the sole source. Occasionally, handsearching of journals may be conducted in specific instances.



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