Current use of routinely collected health data to complement randomized controlled trials: a meta-epidemiological survey.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Studies that use routinely collected health data (RCD studies) are advocated to complement evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) for comparative effectiveness research and to inform health care decisions when RCTs would be unfeasible. We aimed to evaluate the current use of routinely collected health data to complement RCT evidence.

Methods

We searched PubMed for RCD studies published to 2010 that evaluated the comparative effectiveness of medical treatments on mortality using propensity scores. We identified RCTs of the same treatment comparisons and evaluated how frequently the RCD studies analyzed treatments that had not been compared previously in randomized trials. When RCTs did exist, we noted the claimed motivations for each RCD study. We also a

SUBMITTER: Hemkens LG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4933635 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr-Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature