Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 24, 2025

Author Spotlight: Evaluating the Adjuvant Efficacy and Safety of Angong Niuhuang Pill in Viral Encephalitis Treatment
Published on: April 19, 2024
Introduction to Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses of Therapeutic Studies
Murtadha Al-Khabori1, Wasif Rasool2
1Department of Hematology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman.
Abstract:
A systematic review is a specific and reproducible method to search, identify, select, appraise, and summarize all studies relevant to a particular health care question. In this paper, we will review the concept of level of evidence, define the terms systematic review and meta-analysis, and outline the steps in performing a systematic review and meta-analysis with an illustrative example. We will also introduce some important concepts in systematic reviews and meta-analyses like heterogeneity, publication bias, forest plots, and quality assessment. Finally, this review will focus on systematic reviews addressing therapeutic research questions.
Related Concept Videos
Clinical Trials
There are four phases in a clinical trial. A phase one...
Clinical Trials: Overview
Types of Biopharmaceutical Studies: Controlled and Non-Controlled Approaches
Non-controlled studies, commonly employed for initial exploration, lack a control group, rendering them susceptible to biases and external influences. In contrast,...
Drug Administration and Therapy Phases: Overview
The pharmaceutical phase focuses on leveraging the physicochemical properties of the drug to design and manufacture an effective product. Variants include orally administered tablets or capsules, topical creams or ointments, and parenteral-delivery solutions or emulsions.
The pharmacokinetic phase...
Combination Therapies and Personalized Medicine
The combination of the drug acetazolamide and sulforaphane is a good example of combination therapy to treat cancer. The cells in the interior of a large tumor often die due to the hypoxic and...
Therapeutic Index

