gms | German Medical Science

Description: Most randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses include analyses of effect modification (mostly in the form of subgroup analyses) to assess whether the effect of an intervention varies by another variable (e.g. age or disease severity). Assessing the credibility of an apparent effect modification presents challenges. Together with an international group of experts, we have developed a new Instrument for assessing the Credibility of Effect Modification ANalyses (ICEMAN).

The workshop is open for anyone interested in performing or interpreting trials or meta-analyses. After a brief overview, groups of participants will have the opportunity to test ICEMAN and assess published claims of effect modification that we provide. We will clarify conceptual and practical issues that arise during the exercises.

For any questions, or to see the material in advance, please write to s.schandelmaier@gmail.com

Intended methods: The target audience are researchers who are interested or involved in performing, interpreting, or assessing the quality of subgroup analyses in clinical trials or meta-analyses.

At the workshop, we will give an overview of effect modification/subgroup effects in randomized trials and meta-analyses, associated challenges, and present the new instrument. Groups of participants will then have the opportunity to apply ICEMAN to claims of effect modification that we provide. We will discuss the results and clarify conceptual and practical issues that arise during the exercises. Participants will learn about common pitfalls in subgroup analyses and how to use the instrument in practice. We will collect feedback on how we could improve the user-friendliness of future versions of ICEMAN.

Note: The paper is currently in revision; a related dissertation is [1].

Competing interests: Keine