What is a Prospective Meta-Analysis?
The Prospective Meta-Analysis Methods Group
How to Register a Prospective Meta-Analysis
Listing of registered prospective meta-analyses
Contact details for Cochrane PMA Group
prospecti - listserv of the PMA group
PMA Forms and documents

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What is a Prospective Meta-Analysis?

A prospective meta-analysis is a meta-analysis where studies (usually randomised controlled trials) are identified, evaluated and determined to be eligible before the results of any of the studies become known. PMA can therefore help to overcome some of the problems of retrospective meta-analyses by enabling:

• hypotheses to be specified a priori ignorant of the results of individual trials
• prospective application of selection criteria
• a priori statements of intended analyses, including sub-group analyses, to be made before the results of individual trials are known.

The Prospective Meta-Analysis Methods Group

The group is open to anyone who is conducting, has conducted, or is interested in conducting a prospective meta-analysis, regardless of the area of health care investigated. To join, please complete a Prospective Meta-Analysis Methods Group Membership Form.

Aims

The group aims to:

1. Provide a mechanism to enable the registration of prospective meta-analyses.
   a) Cochrane (via Collaborative Review Groups)
   b) Non-Cochrane (via PMA Methods Group)
2. Provide a mechanism for evaluating protocols submitted for registration to ensure they are indeed prospective meta-analyses. This may be achieved by:
   a) Providing training for members of Collaborative Review Groups (eg editors and peer-reviewers)
   b) Members of the PMA Methods Group peer reviewing protocols
3. Develop appropriate methodological standards for prospective meta-analyses.
4. Provide advice and support to those embarking on (or contemplating) a prospective meta-analyses.

How to Register a Prospective Meta-Analysis

All PMA, Cochrane and non-Cochrane, may be registered. To register a PMA investigators should:

1. Contact the relevant Collaborative Review Group, or contact the PMA Methods Group.

2. Complete a Prospective Meta-Analysis: Registration Form.

3. Complete a Prospective Meta-Analysis: Trial Details Form for each trial to be included in the PMA.

4. Develop a protocol (see PMA Protocol Checklist). Each protocol should contain:

• the specific hypotheses \ objectives
• eligibility criteria for trial design (eg requirements for randomisation, minimum follow-up)
• eligibility criteria for the patient population
• eligibility criteria for the treatment comparisons
• definition of outcomes
• details of subgroups
• analysis plan
• details of trials identified for inclusion
• efforts made to identify ongoing trials
• a statement outlining if, at the time of submission for registration, any trial results were known (to anyone outside the trial's own data monitoring committee)
• trials should be included only if their results were unknown at the time they were identified and added to the PMA
• agreement of each of the trial groups to collaborate
• Management and Coordination
• Publication Policy

5. Submit the protocol and completed forms to the identified Collaborative Review Group or the PMA Methods Group. All PMA will undergo the same peer review process as a "traditional" Cochrane review.

prospecti

Subscribe to the the PMA group's listserv prospecti.

Contact Details

Convenors

Davina Ghersi
Research Fellow
NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre
The University of Sydney
Locked Bag 77
Camperdown NSW 1450
Australia
Tel: +61 2 9562 5040
Fax: +61 2 9565 1863
Email: davina@ctc.usyd.edu.au

John Simes
Director
NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre
The University of Sydney
Locked Bag 77
Camperdown NSW 1450
Australia
Tel: +61 2 9562 5000
Fax: +61 2 9565 1863
Email: john@ctc.usyd.edu.au

Jesse A. Berlin
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics
611 Blockley Hall
423 Guardian Drive
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6021
USA
Tel: +1 215-898-1606
Fax: +1 215-573-4865
email: jberlin@cceb.upenn.edu

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Forms and documents

• Prospective Meta-Analysis: Registration Form
• Prospective Meta-Analysis: Trial Details Form
• Prospective Meta-Analysis: Protocol Checklist
• Prospective Meta-Analysis Methods Group Membership Form

These documents,in RTF format, can be downloaded in the single file pmaforms.zip

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Copyright © The Cochrane Collaboration 1999
This page was last updated on 6 May 1999 (link amended 2002.11.20)
Comments for improvement or correction are welcome.
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