Engineering Commons^™

Simplified Meta-Analysis Of Clinical Trials In Resuscitation, Charles F. Babbs

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

Objective: To present and demonstrate a new simplified method for synthesizing results of multiple clinical trials in resuscitation research. Methods: The mean difference across studies in the proportion of favorable outcomes between experimental and control groups is calculated. This difference is shown to have a t-distribution. Its significance can be ascertained with a simple t-test. The analysis can be implemented in a one-page computer spreadsheet. Results: Simplified meta-analysis provides high sensitivity and can be extended to include weighting of studies according to size or quality, comparison of subgroups of studies, tests for outliers, and calculation of the power of the …