Journal of clinical epidemiology
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To develop a framework to identify and classify interactions within and among treatments and conditions and to test this framework with guidelines on chronic heart failure (CHF) and its frequent comorbidity. ⋯ The interaction matrix provides a structure to present different types of interactions between an index disease and comorbidity. Guideline developers may consider the matrix to support clinical decision making in multimorbidity. Further research is needed to show its relevance to improve guidelines and health outcomes.
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Groups such as the Institute of Medicine emphasize the importance of attention to financial conflicts of interest. Little guidance exists, however, on managing the risk of bias for systematic reviews from nonfinancial conflicts of interest. We sought to create practical guidance on ensuring adequate clinical or content expertise while maintaining independence of judgment on systematic review teams. ⋯ The feasibility and utility of this approach to ensuring needed expertise on systematic reviews and minimizing bias from nonfinancial conflicts of interest must be investigated.
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Review
Lack of blinding of outcome assessors in animal model experiments implies risk of observer bias.
To examine the impact of not blinding outcome assessors on estimates of intervention effects in animal experiments modeling human clinical conditions. ⋯ Lack of blinding of outcome assessors in animal model experiments with subjective outcomes implies a considerable risk of observer bias.
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Prognostication is difficult in a diverse patient population or when outcomes depend on multiple factors. This study derived and internally validated a model to predict risk of death from any cause within 1 year of admission to hospital. ⋯ Routinely collected administrative data can be used to accurately predict 1-year death risk in adults admitted to nonpsychiatric hospital services.
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Network meta-analyses (NMAs) aim to rank the benefits (or harms) of interventions, based on all available randomized controlled trials. Thus, the identification of relevant data is critical. We assessed the conduct of the literature searches in NMAs. ⋯ Literature searches in NMAs could be improved by searching more sources, and by involving a librarian or information specialist.