Literature reviews play a vital role in fulfilling the primary goal of any evidence-based research by aiding in decision-making with transparent and impacting results.[1] With advances in all medical fields and with increased access to medical literature, different methodologies have been conceptualized for performing literature reviews, leading to the advent of different types of literature […]
Healthcare decisions for patients and public health policies should be supported by the best available research evidence. To ensure the hierarchy of the evidence, an evidence pyramid was conceptualized, with in-vitro studies and animal studies forming the bottom of the pyramid, expert opinions, case series, case reports, and observational studies forming the middle layer, and […]
The World Health Organization Health (WHO) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being; and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”[1] Health is influenced by medical and non-medical determinants which contribute to health inequities; the non-medical determinants of health are also referred to as the social determinants of health […]
Both electronic health records (EHRs) and patient registries store and use patient-related clinical information. However, they are conceptualized for different purposes. Both are a significant source of real-world evidence (RWE) as they gather a considerable amount of clinical information collected in the real-world setting. An EHR is an electronic record of health data generated during […]
Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the mainstay of clinical research; it is estimated that about 18,000 RCTs are published each year. However, traditional RCTs usually take a long time to complete, are expensive, and the results are challenging to generalize to the real-world since they are derived under ideal conditions with strict inclusion and exclusion […]
Evidence from randomized clinical trials (RCTs) continues to be the standard reference point for treatment efficacy across the world. However, RCTs enrol patients based on strict inclusion and exclusion criteria, and hence RCT evidence is often not generalizable and inadequate for contributing to the day-to-day clinical practice decisions. Consequently, researchers are more interested in using […]
Concerns about the consistency of the post-marketing surveillance (PMS) for safety of medical devices is well known across the world. Only around 13% of post-marketing surveillance (PMS) clinical studies are completed on medical devices.[1] This is because new products or line extensions are launched frequently, even before full clinical trials of the parent device are […]
With all stakeholders increasingly realising the value real-world evidence (RWE) studies can bring into the healthcare delivery, newer applications of RWE are being discovered with each passing day. RWE has the potential to tremendously enhance the speed of patient access to new drugs. With this background, it is absolutely essential that the quality of RWE […]
Real-World Data (RWD), from which Real-World Evidence (RWE) is generated, has the unique capability of depicting real-world outcomes. RWD can also reduce timelines for research and development, and generate profound insights into the disease process. However, RWD from a single source often suffers from bias relating to equipment, lack of phenotypic diversity, limited training models, […]
