Mixed Treatment Comparisons - Network Meta-analysis
The MPES group has contributed substantially to the growing literature on Mixed Treatment Comparisons (MTC), also known as Network Meta-analysis (NMA) and Multiple Treatment Comparisons.
These are methods that are used to combine results from all the trials that have compared two or more of a set of treatments. For example, the treatments A,B,C,D,E may have been compared in trials of A vs B, A vs C, A vs D, B vs C, B vs E, C vs D, C vs E.
Our published work on these methods, including illustrative WinBUGS code and datasets, can be found in a series of seven Technical Support Documents (TSDs) on the website of the Decision Support Unit a group that supports the methodology used in submissions to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). The intention behind the TSDs is not to be prescriptive, but rather to explain the requirements for evidence syntheses set out in the 2013 Guide to the methods of Technology Appraisal, and to provide guidance on methods that meet these requirements, including worked examples.
TSD 1: Introduction to evidence synthesis for decision making
TSD 2: A general linear modelling framework for pair-wise and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials
(last updated September 2016)
WinBUGS system (.odc) files (last updated September 2016)
TSD 3: Heterogeneity: subgroups, meta-regression, bias and bias-adjustment
WinBUGS system (.odc) files
TSD 4: Inconsistency in networks of evidence based on randomised controlled trials(last updated April 2014)
WinBUGS system (.odc) files (last updated March 2013)
TSD 5: Evidence synthesis in the baseline natural history model
WinBUGS system (.odc) files
TSD 6: Embedding evidence synthesis in probabilistic cost effectiveness analysis: software choices
TSD 7: Evidence synthesis of treatment efficacy in decision making: a reviewer's checklist
This report refers to a checklist table, which can be downloaded in Word version here
Abridged versions of these documents have been published in Medical Decision Making (all are Open Access)
Evidence synthesis for decision making 1: Introduction
Evidence synthesis for decision making 5: The Baseline Natural History Model
Evidence synthesis for decision making 7: A Reviewer's Checklist
The same models and coding have also been adopted by the International Society for Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Reports from the ISPOR Task Force on Indirect Comparisons: