Grant: Team Grant: DSEN Collaborating Centre - Network Meta-Analysis

Sometimes after a drug has been made available to the public, many people experience harms (i.e., adverse events) from the medication. This may occur because the studies examining the drug weren't large enough to capture all of the harms that can occur in the real world or because the studies did not include all patient populations who would be taking the medication, such as the elderly. In order to examine adverse events that happen after a drug is made available; the Canadian government has asked scientists to come up with novel ways of conducting knowledge synthesis. Knowledge synthesis allows the combination of many different studies to come up with an answer to a research question. There are many different types of knowledge synthesis and the focus of this proposal is on a technique called Network Meta-analysis. In a network meta-analysis, the effects of a drug are compared with the effects of another drug that have not been directly compared in the same randomized trial. For example, a trial may examine drug A versus drug B and find that drug A is superior to drug B, while another trial may examine drug B versus drug C and find that drug B is equivalent to drug C. The common drug in the two randomized trials is drug B and they have both been compared in the same patient population. Network Meta-analysis provides a statistical method to say that drug A is potentially superior to drug C for this particular patient population. We have created a strong nation-wide team with expertise across many different areas, such as statistics, knowledge synthesis, drug surveillance researchers, and physicians. By investing in junior researchers, bringing together colleagues nationally and internationally with complementary skill sets and expertise, and leveraging existing networks, we have the opportunity to make substantive gains in the health of Canadians.