AIDS FOR CLINICAL AND EPIDEMIOLOGICAL META ANALYSIS

国家研究委员会最近的一份报告强调了 开发和传播最先进的统计技术 组合来自多个来源的信息，用于健康和其他 自然科学和社会科学。被称为“元分析”的方法是 与临床研究和流行病学的相关性越来越大 因为需要获得可靠的定量估计 危险因素和治疗效果相对较小。这样做的目的是 项目是开发一个新的荟萃分析软件工具， 结合了最新的统计技术(例如，包括， NRC报告推荐的分层贝叶斯模型)以及 用户交互、解释和演示的图形化方法。 第一阶段，根据与统计处的合作 科罗拉多州立大学为一名有能力和 综合Meta分析工具，设计了一个框架和一套 创新的图形和统计技术，以满足要求 和原型元素的设计，以供评估和批评。 第二阶段将基于与领先的理论界更广泛的合作 和元分析领域的应用研究人员，并将致力于创建一个完整的- 在一系列“测试站点”进行部署和评估的规模原型。 建议的商业应用：建议的软件支持元数据 临床和流行病学研究的分析直接应用于 学术和政府生物医学研究，以及 制药业。贝尔蒙特研究公司的创始人 在创建和营销软件方面具有丰富的经验以支持 生物医学应用。

A recent National Research Council report has underlined the need for developing and disseminating state-of-the-art statistical techniques for combining information from multiple sources, for use in health and other natural and social sciences. The approach known as "meta-analysis" is becoming increasingly relevant for clinical research and epidemiology because of requirements to obtain reliable quantitative estimates of relatively small risk factors and treatment effects. The goal of this project is to develop a new software tool for meta-analysis that incorporates the latest statistical techniques (including, for example, the hierarchical Bayesian models recommended by the NRC Report) along with graphical methods for user interaction, interpretation, and presentation. Phase I, based on a collaboration with the Statistics Department at Colorado State University, established key requirements for a capable and comprehensive meta-analysis tool, designed a framework and a set of innovative graphical and statistical techniques to meet the requirements and prototyped elements of the design for evaluation and critique. Phase II will be based on a broader collaboration with leading theoretical and applied researchers in meta-analysis, and will aim at creating a full- scale prototype for deployment and evaluation at a series of "beta sites". PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: The proposed software to support meta- analysis of clinical and epidemiological studies has direct application to academic and Government biomedical research, and to clinical trials in the pharmaceutical industry. The founders of Belmont Research Inc. have extensive experience in creating and marketing software to support biomedical applications.