Meta-Analysis

A statistical approach to synthesizing and deriving conclusions from large, complex, and often conflicting bodies of research, meta-analysis allows for better decision making and communication around product effectiveness, outcomes driving utilization and reimbursement decisions, and burden of illness/market size.
Performing a meta-analysis can offer advantages over other study methods, including increased precision and accuracy of results (I.e., increased statistical power), detection of rare outcomes, the ability to make use of seemingly disparate data from different populations and explain heterogeneity across studies, generalizability to a larger population, and improved information on population subgroups.
This method of quantitative review is more objective and reproducible, and is becoming an increasingly important component of health technology assessment (HTA).

Meta-analysis has established its position at the top of the hierarchy of evidence due to the quality of evidence it’s capable of producing.
Making use of existing bodies of research, meta-analyses deliver timely results and can help reduce costs by avoiding the need to conduct clinical-economic studies.
Synergies exist between meta-analytical techniques and health economics; results obtained from meta-analyses can provide significant inputs into health economic models, improving efficiency.

Our experts can maximize the information available in peer-reviewed literature and conduct a comprehensive meta-analysis (e.g., to demonstrate absolute and relative reduction of a particular outcome associated with implementation of your product vs. comparator(s)) able to withstand scientific scrutiny.
We can develop a meta-analysis protocol (in accordance with best practices) detailing eligibility criteria, information sources, search strategy, the process for selecting studies, methods of data extraction, definition of all variables for which data was sought, methods for assessing risk of bias in individual studies, outcomes and summary measures, and data-analysis methods; conduct a systematic review following a prescribed scientific process and querying multiple databases to ensure all eligible studies are included; perform data abstraction and prepare a summary report on the quality of evidence available; complete data-analysis; generate forest plots; and communicate the meta-analytic results, deriving conclusions from the body of literature in a brief report format.
Communicated in a brief report, our meta-analytic findings can serve as the foundation for any number of communication products, including peer-reviewed publication.

Insights

Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Isotretinoin and Risk of Ulcerative Colitis [Confidential Commercial Client] [...]

The Study We recently partnered with ImpediMed to perform a meta-analysis of 50 peer-reviewed studies investigating the [...]

Building a Compelling Evidence Base: Meta-Analysis of Existing Studies [IntraOp] The client needed [...]