What are the differences between a systematic review and a meta-analysis? Here are some tips to help you understand these two different yet related types of study.
This blog introduces you to funnel plots, guiding you through how to read them and what may cause them to look asymmetrical.
When you bring studies together in a meta-analysis, one of the things you need to consider is the variability in your studies – this is called heterogeneity. This blog presents the three types of heterogeneity, considers the different types of outcome data, and delves a little more into dealing with the variations.
A living systematic review is a type of review which is continually updated, incorporating relevant new evidence as it becomes available.
In this blog, Giorgio Karam examines the evidence on antihypertensive drugs for primary prevention – when do we start treatment?
The EU Trials Tracker, devised by the EBM DataLab at the University of Oxford, tracks which trials on the European Union Clinical Trials Register (EUCTR) have reported their results within a year of completion. Learn more about this tracker and how you need to take action.
Tarang Sharma was lead-author of a recent article entitled “The Yusuf-Peto method was not a robust method for meta-analyses of rare events data from antidepressant trials”. In this blog, Tarang gives more details about meta-analysis methods of rare events and sparse data, and why these can lead to misleading results.
This blog follows on from Ammar’s previous post on meta-analysis, and provides further details on the history, value and implementation of this approach.
This blog is a Portuguese translation of the blog ‘Meta-analysis: what, why and how’. Thanks to Cochrane Brazil for the translation.
This blog provides a basic overview of: 1) what a meta-analysis is; 2) why they’re considered the ‘gold standard’ of evidence; and 3) how a meta-analysis is carried out.
A nuts and bolts tutorial on how to read a forest plot, featuring a couple of exercises so that you can test your own understanding.
YouTube video series by Dr. Aaron Carroll called Healthcare Triage, where his motto is, “To the Research!”
The Systematic Review is the highest level of research design and brings available evidence to find an answer to a research question. Read Danny’s blog.
Danny takes us on a tour of the Evidence-Based Medicine Pyramid and the wonders within.
Alice takes a look at the evidence behind flight socks and other aspects of travel health.
David writes about the UK Government’s recent plans to introduce health checks.
Can probiotics prevent diarrhoea? A new Cochrane review says they can. This blog also walks through a few of the features of Cochrane reviews.
David takes a look at the evidence behind the good, bad and ugly of medical news in the media. Week 1-6th June 2013
The NHS Evidence website provides a great starting block for many clinical questions, gathering information from several NHS websites as well as several journals.
A meta-epidemiological study published in the BMJ last month has found that smaller trials consistently report larger effect sizes.
An essay discussing the underpinnings of EBM and the difficulties of using it in clinical practice
This is a tutorial that looks at the statistical basis of randomised controlled trials, the theory behind meta-analyses and how to read a meta-analysis
Bias is often an issue within clinical research, and we take many measures to avoid it. However, these measures are often neglected in preclinical animal studies, which give us the results upon which clinical trial study designs are based.
PowerPoint by Dr Amanda Burls, on randomized controlled trials and meta-analysis, described through four real-life examples.
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