Network vs. Pairwise Meta-Analyses: A Case Study of the Impact of an Evidence-Synthesis Paradigm on Value of Information Outcomes

2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (10) ◽  
pp. 995-1004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zafar Zafari ◽  
Kristian Thorlund ◽  
J. Mark FitzGerald ◽  
Carlo A. Marra ◽  
Mohsen Sadatsafavi
Keyword(s):  
Value Of Information ◽  
Evidence Synthesis ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Overview of Federated Facility to Harmonize, Analyze and Management of Missing Data in Cohorts

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (19) ◽  
pp. 4103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hema Sekhar Reddy Rajula ◽  
Veronika Odintsova ◽  
Mirko Manchia ◽  
Vassilios Fanos
Keyword(s):  
Missing Data ◽  
Cohort Studies ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Statistical Power ◽  
Evidence Synthesis ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Database Systems ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
The Impact

Cohorts are instrumental for epidemiologically oriented observational studies. Cohort studies usually observe large groups of individuals for a specific period of time to identify the contributing factors to a specific outcome (for instance an illness) and create associations between risk factors and the outcome under study. In collaborative projects, federated data facilities are meta-database systems that are distributed across multiple locations that permit to analyze, combine, or harmonize data from different sources making them suitable for mega- and meta-analyses. The harmonization of data can increase the statistical power of studies through maximization of sample size, allowing for additional refined statistical analyses, which ultimately lead to answer research questions that could not be addressed while using a single study. Indeed, harmonized data can be analyzed through mega-analysis of raw data or fixed effects meta-analysis. Other types of data might be analyzed by e.g., random-effects meta-analyses or Bayesian evidence synthesis. In this article, we describe some methodological aspects related to the construction of a federated facility to optimize analyses of multiple datasets, the impact of missing data, and some methods for handling missing data in cohort studies.

scholarly journals The Impact of Drug Trials With Financial Conflict of Interests on the Meta-Analyses: A Meta-Epidemiological Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Na Zhang ◽  
Peijing Yan ◽  
Haitong Zhao ◽  
Lufang Feng ◽  
Xiajing Chu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Adverse Events ◽  
Epidemiological Study ◽  
Evidence Synthesis ◽  
Drug Trials ◽  
Included Trial ◽  
Conflict Of Interests ◽  
Financial Conflict ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Major Adverse Events

Background: Drug trials with potential financial conflict of interests (FCOIs) may influence trial design, drug dosage, comparators, and promising results are more likely to be reported. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of trials with FCOIs on evidence synthesis in meta-analyses (MAs). Methods: A total of 96 MAs from the Cochrane Library about drug trials were investigated. The primary outcomes examined the proportion of conclusions that would change with the exclusion of trials with potential FCOIs. If the proportion of changed conclusions was below the non-inferiority margin of 10%, we considered that it was not inferior to include the trials with potential FCOIs in the MAs. Results: Only 54.17% of MAs reported the funding sources of each included trial, and in 21.88% of MAs, the author-industry-related financial ties of each included trial were reported. When trials with FCOIs were excluded, the changed conclusions of effectiveness and major adverse events were 13.16% and 11.11%, respectively, and the I 2 decreased by 13.56% and 10.09%, respectively. For serious adverse events, the exclusion of FCOIs trials did not lead to any change in conclusions; however, the I 2 decreased by 24.24%. The impact of trials without reported FCOIs was also examined on evidence synthesis, and the results showed that the changed conclusions of effectiveness and major adverse events were 5.26% and 6.25%, respectively, indicating non-inferiority. However, the I 2 increased by 13.60% and 12.37%, respectively. Conclusion: In this meta-epidemiological study, we demonstrated that trials with FCOIs may not only influence the final outcome of MAs but may also increase the heterogeneity of results. It is suggested that all MAs fully report the FCOIs involved in evidence-based research and explore the impact of its FCOIs to better provide a more valuable reference for patients, clinicians, and policymakers.

The impact of digitalization on business processes: case study: Kosovo SMEs

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ylber Limani ◽  
Edmond Hajrizi ◽  
Rina Sadriu
Keyword(s):  
Business Processes ◽  
The Impact
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document