We examine four important considerations in the development of covariate adjustment methodologies for indirect treatment comparisons. First, we consider potential advantages of weighting versus outcome modeling, placing focus on bias-robustness. Second, we outline why model-based extrapolation may be required and useful, in the specific context of…

The number of clinical prediction models sharing the same prediction task has increased in the medical literature. However, evidence synthesis methodologies that use the results of these prediction models have not been sufficiently studied, particularly in the context of meta-analysis settings where only summary statistics are available. In…

This paper explores the use of theory in longitudinal qualitative research, an approach to research which explores lived experiences as they unfold. The authors illustrate how the complexity of conducting qualitative research through time drives an understanding and use of theory that differs from other research approaches. Longitudinal…

Some patients benefit from a treatment while others may do so less or do not benefit at all. We have previously developed a two-stage network meta-regression prediction model that synthesized randomized trials and evaluates how treatment effects vary across patient characteristics. In this article, we extended this model to combine different…

Reference intervals, or reference ranges, aid medical decision-making by containing a pre-specified proportion (e.g., 95%) of the measurements in a representative healthy population. We recently proposed three approaches for estimating a reference interval from a meta-analysis based on a random effects model: a frequentist approach, a Bayesian…

Background: Knowledge brokers facilitate the creation, sharing and use of knowledge among different research, policy and practice communities. This paper examines the way collective knowledge brokering can address the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic boundaries that separate research and practice communities. Methods: A comparative ethnographic…

Objective: We offer an overview of ADHD research using mouse models of nicotine exposure. Method: Nicotine exposure of C57BL/6 or Swiss Webster mice occurred during prenatal period only or during the prenatal and the preweaning periods. Behavioral, neuroanatomical and neurotransmitter assays were used to investigate neurobiological mechanisms of…

Biostatisticians apply statistical methods to solve problems in the biological sciences. Successful practioners of biostatistics have advanced technical knowledge, are skilled communicators, and can seamlesslessly integrate with interdisciplinary scientific teams. Despite the breadth of skills required for success in this field, most biostatistics…

Standard models for network meta-analysis simultaneously estimate multiple relative treatment effects. In practice, after estimation, these multiple estimates usually pass through a formal or informal selection procedure, eg, when researchers draw conclusions about the effects of the best performing treatment in the network. In this paper, we…

Meta-analysis of individual participant data (IPD) is considered the "gold-standard" for synthesizing clinical study evidence. However, gaining access to IPD can be a laborious task (if possible at all) and in practice only summary (aggregate) data are commonly available. In this work we focus on meta-analytic approaches of comparative…

Diagnostic test accuracy studies frequently report on sensitivities and specificities for more than one threshold of the diagnostic test under study. Although it is obvious that the information from all thresholds should be used for a meta-analysis, in practice, frequently, only a single pair of sensitivity and specificity is selected. To overcome…

We sought to apply natural language processing to the task of automatic risk of bias assessment in preclinical literature, which could speed the process of systematic review, provide information to guide research improvement activity, and support translation from preclinical to clinical research. We use 7840 full-text publications describing…

Network meta-analysis has been gaining prominence as an evidence synthesis method that enables the comprehensive synthesis and simultaneous comparison of multiple treatments. In many network meta-analyses, some of the constituent studies may have markedly different characteristics from the others, and may be influential enough to change the…

The Hartung-Knapp method for random-effects meta-analysis, that was also independently proposed by Sidik and Jonkman, is becoming advocated for general use. This method has previously been justified by taking all estimated variances as known and using a different pivotal quantity to the more conventional one when making inferences about the…

Time-course model-based network meta-analysis (MBNMA) has been proposed as a framework to combine treatment comparisons from a network of randomized controlled trials reporting outcomes at multiple time-points. This can explain heterogeneity/inconsistency that arises by pooling studies with different follow-up times and allow inclusion of studies…