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 »
Leading Alzheimer’s experts have called upon the UK Government in an open letter to end underfunding in dementia research, and triple it to £96 million within 5 years. Signatories include John Hardy and Nick Fox from the Editorial Board of Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, a journal recently launched by BioMed Central. The letter says: "Within… Read more »
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 »
“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 »
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 »
Arthritis Research & Therapy is unveiling a new look in the latest print edition of the journal. This bi-monthly issue – now in its 11th volume – presents a compendium of content found on the journal website, where articles are continuously published. The June print issue introduces a colourful new front cover design, and an… Read more »
“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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »