The NIHR Complex Reviews Support Unit (CRSU), (a collaboration between University of Glasgow, University of Leicester and LSHTM, Director Olivia Wu), has just launched a special version of their Network Meta-Analysis App; MetaInsight COVID-19; Network Meta-Analysis of Pharmacological treatments for COVID 19: Tool for exploration, re-analysis, sensitivity analysis, and interrogation of data from living systematic reviews. https://crsu.shinyapps.io/metainsightcovid/

Development was led by Professor Alex Sutton (University of Leicester) and Dr Yiqiao Xin (HEHTA, University of Glasgow). Alex Sutton explains the function of the App.

This app serves two purposes. Firstly, it represents the best way we could think to use our skills to contribute to the global effort to deal with the pandemic while being able to maintain the core tasks of the unit. Essentially, we have built a front-end to the MetaInsight app in which the evidence from COVID-19 trials will be inbuilt and updated as the living systematic reviews (https://covid-nma.com/) are updated. Where we see us having a potential role is where uncertainty remains regarding the "combinability" of the studies and our tool gives all stakeholders the ability to explore the robustness to what are inevitably subjective decisions that you will sometimes have to make. Where others also publish related analyses, it may also help reconcile the causes of any differences.

We hope that this will facilitate the answering of specific questions each stakeholder may have and provide deeper insights into the COVID 19 evidence base (e.g. which are the most influential / outlying trials, are the results robust to the exclusion of certain studies etc).

See the suite of NIHR CRSU Apps here http://www.nihrcrsu.org/guidance/apps/#

First published: 20 May 2020

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