Instant reviews

In February I posted an article discussing 'the near instantaneous meta-analysis'. In a nutshell - is there a way to very rapidly combine the results of multiple-trials?Since then we have been quite busy working on this project, helped by some external expertise and a recent research grant.  Trip funded phase one, a proof of concept phase that allowed me to appreciate the challenges, limitations and opportunities that our approach presented.  The results were great and since then we have been awarded a grant to move forward to phase two.Phase two will create a working model for people to use. This will be quite a simple solution and will only be aimed at synthesising placebo-controlled trials (more complex, comparator trials will form phase three).  The working model will work as follows:User will use a modified search box telling us the condition and the intervention (e.g. acne and antibiotics).Our system will search just the controlled trials portion of Trip to identify suitable trials.We will then analyse these and present a score (more below on the scoring system).We will then have an area that explains the results, how we arrived at them and the ability for the user to alter certain aspects.  This last bit is important as we're relying on machines to 'read' the documents and extract pertinent information.  This is unlikely to be foolproof and while the system 'learns' it'll need some feedback from users.  But, if the user does make alteratio...
Source: Liberating the literature - Category: Technology Consultants Source Type: blogs