På søkekurs i York

Kursene ”Advanced search techniques” og ”Trials registers” som Universitetet i York arrangerer med jevne mellomrom, er svært relevante for en som komponerer systematiske litteratursøk. Søkene utføres for å identifisere medisin- og helsefaglig forskning for systematiske oversikter, metodevurderinger (health technology assessments) og andre forskningsoversikter. Kildene vi søker i utvikles stadig med nytt grensesnitt, endret søkefunksjonalitet, revisjon og tillegg av emneord, antall indekserte tidsskrift etc. Forskning og evaluering av informasjonsinnhenting medfører revisjon av feltet vårt, og faglig oppdatering er viktig. Dette er noe av min motivasjon for å delta på slike kurs

Targeted AntiBiotics for Chronic pulmonary diseases (TARGET ABC):can targeted antibiotic therapy improve the prognosis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa-infected patients with chronic pulmonary obstructive disease, non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis, and asthma? A multicenter, randomized, controlled, open-label trial

BACKGROUND: Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection is seen in chronic pulmonary disease and is associated with exacerbations and poor long-term prognosis. However, evidence-based guidelines for the management and treatment of P. aeruginosa infection in chronic, non-cystic fibrosis (CF) pulmonary disease are lacking. The aim of this study is to investigate whether targeted antibiotic treatment against P. aeruginosa can reduce exacerbations and mortality in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), non-CF bronchiectasis, and asthma. METHODS: This study is an ongoing multicenter, randomized, controlled, open-label trial. A total of 150 patients with COPD, non-CF bronchiectasis or asthma, and P. aeruginosa-positive lower respiratory tract samples will be randomly assigned with a 1:1 ratio to either no antibiotic treatment or anti-pseudomonal antibiotic treatment with intravenous beta-lactam and oral ciprofloxacin for 14 days. The primary outcome, analyzed with two co-primary endpoints, is (i) time to prednisolone and/or antibiotic requiring exacerbation or death, in the primary or secondary health sector, within days 20–365 from study allocation and (ii) days alive and without exacerbation within days 20–365 from the study allocation. DISCUSSION: This trial will determine whether targeted antibiotics can benefit future patients with chronic, non-CF pulmonary disease and P. aeruginosa infection in terms of reduced morbidity and mortality, thus optimizing therapeutic approaches in this large group of chronic patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03262142. Registered on August 25, 2017. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13063-022-06720-z

Testing the best performing methodological search filters to retrieve health economic evaluations in Embase: A filter validation study

This master’s thesis consist of an introductory part describing the background for preforming the validation study, the methods used, and a discussion of the methods and results. The introductory part describes the filter validation study in more detail than possible in the article manuscript. Background: Health technology assessments (HTAs) are increasingly used by Norwegian health authorities as the evidence base when prioritizing which health care services to offer. HTAs typically consist of a systematic review of the effects and safety of two or more health care interventions, and an economic evaluation of the interventions, based on systematic literature searches in bibliographic databases. Objective: To identify the best performing of seven search filters to retrieve health economic evaluations used to inform health technology assessments (HTAs), by comparing the costeffectiveness analysis (CEA) filter to six published filters in Ovid Embase, and achieve a sensitivity of at least 0.90 with a precision of 0.10, and specificity of at least 0.95. Methods: In this filter validation study, the included filters’ performances were compared against a gold standard of economic evaluations published in 2008-2013 (n=2,248) from the National Health Service Economic Evaluation Database (NHS EED), and the corresponding records (n=2,198) in the current version of Ovid Embase Results: The CEA filter had a sensitivity of 0.899 and precision of 0.029. One filter had a sensitivity of 0.880 and a precision of 0.075, which was closest to the objective. The filter with lowest sensitivity (0.702) had a precision of 0.141. Conclusion: Developing search filters for identifying health economic evaluations, with a good balance between sensitivity and precision, is possible but challenging. Researchers should agree on acceptable levels of performance before concluding on which search filter to use

Persontilpasset medisin og folkehelse: kartlegging av oppsummert forskning

Hovedbudskap: Denne kartleggingen av oppsummert forskning innen persontilpasset medisin og folkehelse er gjort som internt oppdrag på folkehelseinstituttet. Kartleggingen skal inngå i en strategisk diskusjon om persontilpasset medisin, folkehelse og Folkehelseinstituttets fremtidige rolle på dette feltet. Bakgrunnen for oppdraget er dels at Bestillerforum for nye metoder har gitt Folkehelseinstituttet i oppdrag å gjennomføre metodevurderinger knyttet til kreftlegemidler med tilhørende diagnostiske tester. Kreft er en viktig folkesykdom, men på langt nær den eneste. Denne oversikten søker å undersøke de overlappende flatene mellom persontilpasset medisin og folkehelse. For å danne oss et bilde av eksisterende oppsummert forskning, har vi kartlagt systematiske oversikter om persontilpasset medisin og folkehelse. Vi søkte systematisk etter litteratur i forskningsdatabaser og brukte forhåndsbestemte inklusjonskriterier for å vurdere hvilke systematiske oversikter som skulle inkluderes. Vi inkluderte fire systematiske oversikter som handlet om persontilpasset medisin og folkehelse. Begrepet folkehelse åpner for inklusjon av flere typer av sykdommer, men de inkluderte sykdomsspesifikke oversiktene omhandlet prostatakreft og bukspyttkjertelkreft. To oversikter vurderte ny teknologi og innovasjon ved å oppsummere studier om genomvide assosiasjonsstudier (GWAS) og kunstig intellingens