Monthly Archives: July 2009

PRISMA statement published – and endorsed by BioMed Central's journals

A new reporting guideline for systematic reviews and meta-analyses – the study design considered to produce the highest level of evidence for clinical decision-makers – has been published, and is endorsed in BioMed Central’s instructions to authors. The PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement is a revised an updated version of… Read more »

Medicine

Study finds clinical trial registrations often fail to meet WHO data standards

The WHO minimum dataset has improved trial registry compliance but many individual trial records recorded between April 2005 and February 2007 still omit key information, including researcher contact details, a study published this week in Trials has found. The registration of clinical trials in a publicly accessible database has become an established part of the… Read more »

Medicine

Trials, they are a’changin’

“Genomic advances and their impact on clinical trial design”, a Commentary published this week in Genome Medicine, discusses the effect current advances in genomic research have on the future of clinical trial design and on the interpretation of clinical trial data for disease management. In their article, Dr Sumithra J Mandrekar and Dr Daniel J… Read more »

Medicine
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Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy publishes first articles

Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, a new BioMed Central journal edited by Douglas Galasko, Todd Golde and Gordon Wilcock has just published its first articles online. The Editors-in-Chief introduce the journal in their editorial and to celebrate its launch, we will be distributing a special print preview issue at the Alzheimer’s Association 2009 International Conference on… Read more »

Medicine

Genes as building blocks of disease susceptibility

“Exploring the unknown: assumptions about allelic architecture and strategies for susceptibility variant discovery”, a Minireview published this week in Genome Medicine, highlights the significant progress in identifying the genomic mechanisms behind disease predisposition. In his article, Prof Mark I McCarthy explains that, although the discovery of specific genes associated with many common diseases is interesting,… Read more »

Medicine

BioPsychoSocial Medicine announces the Winner of the 2008 Ikemi Award

The winner of this year’s Ikemi Award was Hiroki Nishimura, MA (National Institute of Mental Health, NCNP, Tokyo) for his article published in BioPsychoSocial Medicine. Psychological and weight-related characteristics of patients with anorexia nervosa-restricting type who later develop bulimia nervosaNishimura H, Komaki G, Ando T, Nakahara T, Oka T, Kawai K, Nagata T, Nishizono A,… Read more »

Medicine

Authenticity of some published trials in question

More than 90% of a sample of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published in Chinese journals between 1994 and 2005 did not adhere to recognised methodology for randomisation, according to a study published yesterday in Trials, casting doubt on the reliability of research that has the potential to influence medical decision-makers. Wu and colleagues (Chinese Cochrane… Read more »

Medicine

Reporting of treatment heterogeneity proves challenging

A review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that had been published in five prominent medical journals has revealed that heterogeneity of treatment effects (HTE) is frequently ignored or incorrectly analysed. The results of this study were published last week in Trials. Some patients will experience more or less benefit from treatment than the averages reported… Read more »

Medicine