NHMRC Clinical Trial Centre | Improving Health Outcomes
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NextGen Methods Development

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Research Areas

We are leading several projects focusing on the methodology of ‘Next-generation’ research methods including prospective meta-analysis, network meta-analysis, and individual participant data meta-analysis.

This includes the following projects:

  • Scoping review on prospective meta-analyses
  • How to report prospective meta-analyses
  • The development of guidelines for the assessment of trial quality and study design, for trials included in meta-analyses
  • Development of data sharing standards

The team has recently published ‘A guide to prospective meta-analysis’ and ‘Searching clinical trials registers: a guide for systematic reviewers’, both in the BMJ.

We have also recently published a protocol for the development of a checklist of standard items for processing individual participant data.

 

Collaborators:

Cochrane Prospective Meta-analysis Methods Group

Chief Investigators:

Anna Lene Seidler, Kylie Hunter, Sol Libesman, Saskia Cheyne, Mason Aberoumand, Lisa Askie & Prof Angela Webster

Contact email:

Lene.seidler@sydney.edu.au

External website:

www.methods.cochrane.org/pma/

Publications:
  1. Hunter KE, Webster AC, Clarke M, Page MJ, Libesman S, Godolphin PJ, Aberoumand M, Rydzewska LHM, Wang R, Tan AC, Li W, Mol BW, Willson M, Brown V, Palacios T, Seidler AL. Development of a checklist of standard items for processing individual participant data from randomised trials for meta-analyses: Protocol for a modified e-Delphi study. PloS one. 2022 Oct 11;17(10):e0275893. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275893
  2. Hunter K, Webster A, Willson M, McDonald S, Berber S, Skeers P, Tan-Koay A, Parkhill A, Seidler AL. Searching clinical trials registers: guide for systematic reviewers. BMJ. 2022;377:e068791. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-068791
  3. Wang R, Dwan K, Showell M, van Wely M, Mol B, Askie L, Seidler AL. Reporting of Cochrane systematic review protocols with network meta-analyses – a scoping review. Research Synthesis Methods. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1531
  4. Seidler AL, Hunter KE, Espinoza D, Mihrshahi S, Askie LM, on behalf of the EPOCH Collaboration: Quantifying the advantages of conducting a prospective meta-analysis (PMA): a case study of early childhood obesity prevention. Trials 2021, 22(1):78.
  5. Seidler AL, Hunter KE, Cheyne S, Berlin JA, Ghersi  D, Askie  LM. Prospective meta‐analyses and Cochrane's role in embracing next‐generation methodologies. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2020, Issue 3. Art. No.: ED000145. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.ED000145.
  6. Seidler, A. L., Hunter, K. E., Cheyne, S., Ghersi, D., Berlin, J. A., & Askie, L. (2019). A guide to prospective meta-analysis. BMJ 367.
  7. Seidler AL, Hunter KE, Chartres N, Askie LM. Associations between industry involvement and study characteristics at the time of trial registration in biomedical research. PLoS ONE 2019;14(9): e0222117. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222117
  8. Tan A, Jiang I, Askie L, Hunter K, Simes RJ, Seidler AL. Prevalence of trial registration varies by study characteristics and risk of bias. J Clin Epi. 2019:113:64-74.
  9. Hunter KE, Seidler AL, Askie LM. Prospective registration trends, reasons for retrospective registration and mechanisms to increase prospective registration compliance: descriptive analysis and survey. BMJ Open 2018;8(3):e019983. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019983.