EXAMPLES OF OUR WORK (CLICK IMAGES TO ACCESS)

  A client required both an abstract and poster developed on short notice for a major hematological annual conference for a rare disease, with analyses based upon a single arm clinical trial and and an external control arm from a prospective cohort study. We developed both deliverables using an outline and template provided by the client, and worked with statisticians to develop key summary findings, visuals and text to meet short deadlines. 

  Stakeholders within the Canadian territory of Nunavut wished to consider comparative evidence related to several possible treatment regimens to manage latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). To address their evidence needs, we conducted a rapid review and network meta-analysis and presented findings comparing different treatment regimens, examining their effects on both infections and adherence to treatment. We published our findings in an open access article within BMC Infectious Diseases.  

 Given the severe nature of the opioid crisis in many countries, stakeholders were interested to evaluate the currently available evidence supporting the effectiveness of different psychosocial interventions in terms of key outcomes. We acquired academic funding and subsequently performed a systematic review and NMA involving several dozen randomized trials, and published our findings in the open access journal PLOS One. Our knowledge users were extremely happy with this work. 

 Therapies for breast and prostate cancer have improved dramatically. While patients are now living longer, there is now a need to establish effective therapies for survivorship challenges such as hot flashes, which impact patients' quality of life in many ways. With academic funding, we conducted a systematic review including NMA to compare pharmacologics, complementary and alternative medicines, as well as exercise-based and psychotherapy-based treatments. This work supported guideline development. 

Research has shown that being overweight or obese increases the risk of cancer-related mortality, however the best exercise / diet strategies to reduce anthropometric measures (weight, BMI, waist circumference) are unclear. We performed a systematic review and NMA of almost 100 RCTs comparing different exercise and diet strategies to compare their relative effects on measures of weight loss.  

This review was published in PLOS One and was presented at Canadian oncology conferences to support dissemination.

 Following legalization, older adults (50+ years) are a demographic of increasing cannabis consumption, with increased uptake often stemming from interests to manage increased comorbidities. While health benefits of cannabis may exist, characteristics of older adults (e.g., age-related mental, physical, physiological and pharmacokinetic changes; polypharmacy) make them more susceptible to negative outcomes. To inform policy makers, we published a scoping review of >130 studies that looked at the health effects of cannabis in older adults. We also discussed our findings with TIme Magazine in 2024.

 A client pursuing an HTA submission of a novel therapy for spinal muscular atrophy was in need of a multi-purpose document capturing the epidemiology of the disease, current clinical practice recommendations, a targeted literature review of clinical evidence supporting their therapy, and a synopsis of patient perspectives regarding the value of the intervention to their quality of life. We developed a 30-page white paper addressing all of these key topics based on the available literature. The client was extremely satisfied with the final product. (NOTE: this is a confidential document but we welcome conversations for such deliverables where more information can be provided). 

 A.client wished to develop a methods manuscript that demonstrated the presence of bias in NMAs comparing treatments for psoriasis when between-study clinical heterogeneity amongst study populations was left unaccounted for during analysis. Work was conducted with researchers from Eversana Inc. After subsequent use of several methods of adjustment for between-study differences, differences in the effect estimates and ranking of competing therapy were highlighted. Findings were published in the Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research. 

 Systematic reviews and other forms of knowledge syntheses are frequently used by policy makers, clinicians, researchers and patients for different forms of decision making. Unfortunately, there is an ever-growing need for evidence to be available more quickly and at lower costs. With the release of machine learning tools for citation screening growing in availability in software tools such as DistillerSR (Evidence Partners Inc, Ottawa, Canada), we received academic funding to evaluate such tools. We published both an empirical assessment of this tool (PMID  33059590) and developed recommendations for its use in practice by creators of knowledge syntheses (PMID  34930132).