Advanced Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis

COURSE OVERVIEW

The three-day meta-analysis course for health professionals is designed to provide an introduction to advanced methods for conducting systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Topics covered will include frequentist and Bayesian meta-analysis, meta-regression, subgroup analyses, and methods to investigate heterogeneity, as well as advanced methods for diagnostic accuracy and network meta-analysis, and the role of meta-analysis for HTA decision making. The course willl be interactive and practical, with a mixture of lectures and hand-on tutorial. Computer exercises will be conducted. 

• attendees with a basic knowledge of introductory statistics and prior exposure to statistical software
• ​suitable for anyone with an interest in flexible approaches to data visualization and data analysis
• scientists, health care professionals, consultancy organizations and a wide range of industries
• PhD, medical and master students

Course Pre-requisites:
Course Language is English. Both native and non-native English speaker scientists are welcome

THE COURSE COVERS THE FOLLOWING TOPICS:

Day 1: Steps in developing a meta-analysis and analysis plan: Hypothesis generation, data extraction and validation, determining the outcome and effect measure to be used, selecting between fixed and random effects models, assessing heterogeneity, bias and study quality

Day 2: Bayesian and frequentist methods: Bayesian vs. frequentist methods, Bayesian methods in network meta-analysis, random vs. fixed effects, separate vs. simultaneous models, baseline risk adjustment, assumptions, distributional models, model fit/convergence, role of network diagram, interpretation of results, meta-regression, funnel plot, issues that are unique to meta-analysis of observational studies, activity – interpreting results

Day 3: Diagnostic meta-analysis and role of meta-analysis in health technology assessment: Diagnostic test performance (sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odds ratio) and ROC curves, threshold effects, diagnostic meta-analysis, between-study heterogeneity, different methodological approaches (SROC, HSROC, others), AUC, confidence and prediction region; role of meta-analysis in health technology assessment, emerging approaches to meta-analysis („living“ analyses).