Core Scientific Offerings

Data Synthesis

Systematic literature reviews typically address specific predetermined questions by selecting, critically evaluating, and summarizing available research. Meta-analyses are most often used to establish the overall effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and/or safety of an individual therapy or to compare these outcomes across multiple therapies when few head-to-head trials exist. In identifying studies for inclusion in systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses, investigators develop criteria for selecting high-quality studies that have used similar methodologies and subjects, search large literature databases to identify candidate studies, and evaluate the extent to which each study meets the predetermined inclusion criteria.

The results of systematic literature reviews help to:

• Understand your therapeutic environment,
• Identify knowledge/data gaps,
• Determine appropriate/optimal outcome measures for future studies,
• Generate data for health economic models,
• Define key clinical and economic messages, and
• Analyze areas of unmet needs for a clinical disease/condition.