Information sources meta-analyses

Cochrane Library. The Cochrane Library [44] includes The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, a collection of regularly updated, systematic reviews of the effects of health care. It is maintained by contributors to the Cochrane Collaboration. Cochrane reviews are reviews mainly of randomized controlled trials. To minimize bias, evidence is included or excluded on the basis of explicit quality criteria. Data are often combined statistically, with meta-analysis, to increase the power of the findings of numerous studies, each too small to produce reliable results individually. Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness is also included. It consists of critical assessments and structured abstracts of good systematic reviews published elsewhere. The Cochrane Controlled Trials Register with bibliographic information on controlled trials and other sources of information on the science of reviewing research and evidence-based health care are part of the Cochrane Library. It is commercially available on CD-ROM or the Internet. 

It may be necessary to ask patients directly for information (e.g., number and length of time of home visits by health professionals). Missing data can be estimated using meta-analysis to combine results from other studies. Alternatively assumptions can be based on expert opinion and then tested using sensitivity analysis. If data is collected from different sources then it will be important to use simulation models to combine the data and take account of the variation. 

When designing a meta-analysis, there may exists large trials in terms of fhe number of patients or follow-up time with good safety outcome ascertainment. If these trials are include in the meta-analysis, they may dominate the overall meta-analysis results. It may be worthwhile to design the meta-analysis so as not to include these trials. The resulting meta-analysis would summarize the information from the smaller trials, and the larger trials can be evaluated as additional, independent sources of information. The rosiglitazone meta-analysis example is this chapter takes this approach. 

The protocol should discuss what information was available prior to designing the meta-analysis and what information motivated the research objectives of the meta-analysis. The reporting should clearly state which trials were conducted and which trial results were known by study investigators prior to the design of the meta-analysis. The protocol should state the trial and patient inclusion, including discussion on any possible publication bias. The protocol should state the sources of the trial and patient data. 

The well-known DENDRAL and META-DENDRAL programs (43) are noted as the major AI success in chemical applications over the past decade. However, advances in analytical technology and computer capabilities have led to new approaches (44-56). Information fusion from selected instrumental tools often is a more productive route than exhaustive data analysis from a single source. Furthermore, combination of chromatographic separation with spectral, thermal, and microchemical analyses can be realistically achieved in many laboratories. Generalizing and documenting this trend using an AI approach seemed appropriate at this time. 

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