Article
Methods for Generalized Evidence Synthesis
Search Medline for
Authors
Published: | August 29, 2017 |
---|
Outline
Text
Workshop of the GMDS Working Groups
- "Therapeutische Forschung"
- "Methodik systematischer Reviews"
Abstract:
The benefit assessment of drugs, in which the causal effects of medical interventions are evaluated regarding a clearly defined comparator, plays an important role, especially after the Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products (Arzneimittelmarktneuordnungsgesetz, AMNOG) came into force at the beginning of 2011. For the benefit assessment of drugs a number of methodological issues are relevant. The traditional pairwise meta-analysis as summary of several randomized controlled trials does not cover all data situations occurring in practice. Thus, methods for generalized evidence synthesis are developed. For example, due to lacking head-to-head trials for a considered research question methods for indirect comparisons gain importance. Besides methods for adjusted indirect comparisons and network meta-analyses also methods for disconnected networks are proposed. Other interesting approaches are developed for the combination of randomized and non-randomized trials and extrapolation, e.g. by using Bayesian methods. In the workshop new approaches for generalized evidence synthesis are presented and discussed. Important issues are given by the assumptions of the considered approaches, the uncertainty of the results, and the corresponding consequences for health care decision making.