Forest plots for meta analysis

描述（由申请人提供）：元分析在制定政策和规划新研究中起着关键作用。在预防药物滥用领域，荟萃分析用于确定相互竞争的成瘾治疗方法的相对影响，估计与成瘾有关的疾病的流行程度，规划有针对性的干预措施，评估相互竞争的治疗方法的成本效益，并协助规划更有效的研究。任何元分析的一个关键元素是森林图，它作为数据的可视化表示。森林图一眼就能看出，分析中报告的总体效果是基于许多研究还是少数研究；关于精确或不精确的研究；是否所有研究的治疗效果都是一致的，或者它们是否在不同的研究中有很大的不同。图表为统计数据提供了真实的面貌，有助于确保这些数据得到正确的解释，并突出了需要注意的异常值等异常值。森林情节既简洁又引人注目，名称本身反映了meta分析的目标，即“只见树木不见森林”。这个应用程序的目标是开发用于创建森林地块的软件。该程序既可以作为独立程序，也可以作为运行分析的程序中的模块。它将允许用户从其他程序导入数据，创建森林图并广泛定制图，然后将图导出到其他程序。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Meta analysis plays a key role in setting policy and in planning new research. In the field of substance abuse prevention, meta analyses have been used to determine the relative impact of competing treatments for addiction, to estimate prevalence of addiction-related diseases, to plan targeted interventions, to assess the cost-effectiveness of competing treatments, and to assist in planning more effective research. A key element in any meta analysis is the forest plot which serves as the visual representation of the data. The forest plot shows at a glance if the overall effect reported in the analysis is based on many studies or a few; on studies that are precise or imprecise; whether the treatment effects for all studies tend to line up in a row, or whether they vary substantially from one study to the next. The plot puts a face on the statistics, helping to ensure that they will be interpreted properly, and highlighting anomalies such as outliers that require attention. The forest plot is at once concise and compelling, the appellation itself reflecting the goal of the meta analysis, to see "the forest for the trees". The goal of this application is to develop software for creating forest plots. The program will function both as a stand-alone program and also as module within a program that runs analyses. It will allow the user to import data from other programs, create a forest plot and customize the plot extensively, and then export the plot to other programs.