Hurtful or helpful?
When you’re thinking about applying the results of a clinical trial, its’ often difficult to get a meaningful handle on the balance that should be made between the beneficial and adverse effects of a...
View ArticleIt’s how mixed up? Meta analysis models step one.
Well, I have to start with an apology. In one of these columns, I foolishly claimed that the difference between a Peto OR fixed effect meta-analysis and a DerSimonian-Laird random effects meta-analysis...
View ArticleConfident in predicting? Meta analysis models step two.
So, in a previous post I made a foray into the dangerous world of statistical models of meta-analysis. Now, I’ll try hard to explain why we need to start doubting random effects meta-analysis more than...
View ArticleSecrets and lies. Truth and beauty.
… and other Bohemian aphorisms … There is a quite brilliant paper from the under-advertised PLoS One which shows how, in the are of incubation periods for respiratory disease, Truth By Citation is...
View ArticleSlice, DICE and eventually something will happen
Did you know that aspirin following MI doesn’t work for those with Gemini and Libra star signs? No, it’s true*. The ISIS-2 trial, which demonstrated the mortality benefits for anti-platelet agents...
View ArticleShort-cuts to effectiveness information
A while ago Archimedes reviewed the benefits of using ‘pre-appraised’ search resources, short-cuts to the best methodological quality evidence to answer clinical questions. The favoured database of...
View ArticleTarnished gold
What can you do when a ‘gold standard’ isn’t actually that good at diagnosing a condition? It can be terribly problematic in interpreting sensitivity and specificity – for example comparing polymerase...
View ArticleCracking the mould
While Archimedes does, not infrequently, get all concerned about invasive fungal infections, this post is not of the issue of beta-D-glucan testing, or problems of azole interactions. Instead, its a...
View ArticleProof of equipoise
In order to test a new treatment, in a standard randomised controlled trial, we are ethically assumed to have ‘equipoise': an honest uncertainty at the same chance of a patient being allocated to the...
View ArticleGet it straight from the start
Over more than a decade Archimedes has presented clinical queries and the appraisal of the evidence that emerges. leading on to a clinical conclusion to the dilemma. What is strikingly common is that...
View ArticleBasics: Blame it on me
In my clinical role, it’s fairly easy to take the blame for most bad things that happen to my patients. I give them cytotoxic chemotherapy (for good reason, honest) and it’s a group of substances that...
View ArticleCases and controls
I’ve noticed that there are a fair few phrases in the world where there actual meaning can be unclear or uncertain, or possibly interpreted differently by folk. Take “maybe later” when used by parent...
View ArticleCan our children’s trials work better than they do?
We’re all well aware of the problems of doing randomised clinical trials in paediatrics – small numbers, uncertainty about sample size estimates, lack of funding to undertake the studies – but are we...
View ArticleSecrets and lies. Truth and beauty.
… and other Bohemian aphorisms … There is a quite brilliant paper from the under-advertised PLoS One which shows how, in the are of incubation periods for respiratory disease, Truth By Citation is...
View ArticleSlice, DICE and eventually something will happen
Did you know that aspirin following MI doesn’t work for those with Gemini and Libra star signs? No, it’s true*. The ISIS-2 trial, which demonstrated the mortality benefits for anti-platelet agents...
View ArticleShort-cuts to effectiveness information
A while ago Archimedes reviewed the benefits of using ‘pre-appraised’ search resources, short-cuts to the best methodological quality evidence to answer clinical questions. The favoured database of...
View ArticleTarnished gold
What can you do when a ‘gold standard’ isn’t actually that good at diagnosing a condition? It can be terribly problematic in interpreting sensitivity and specificity – for example comparing polymerase...
View ArticleCracking the mould
While Archimedes does, not infrequently, get all concerned about invasive fungal infections, this post is not of the issue of beta-D-glucan testing, or problems of azole interactions. Instead, its a...
View ArticleProof of equipoise
In order to test a new treatment, in a standard randomised controlled trial, we are ethically assumed to have ‘equipoise’: an honest uncertainty at the same chance of a patient being allocated to the...
View ArticleGet it straight from the start
Over more than a decade Archimedes has presented clinical queries and the appraisal of the evidence that emerges. leading on to a clinical conclusion to the dilemma. What is strikingly common is that...
View Article
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