Sat. Oct 12, 2019 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM Room 15 (Palace Room B)

Organizer / Chair: Toshi A. FURUKAWA (Department of Health Promotion and Human Behavior, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine / School of Public Health, Japan), Co-chair: Hisateru TACHIMORI (National Center of Psychiatry and Neurology, Japan), Discussant: ‌Fumihiro TAMURA (Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd., Japan)

Medicine is making constant progress and for many diseases we currently have several or more treatment alternatives. Network meta-analysis (NMA) offers the strongest method for evidence synthesis in such circumstances by pooling both direct and indirect comparisons, thus enabling comparisons where direct ones are lacking, making effect estimates more precise than through direct comparisons only, and ultimately ranking all alternative treatments.
The methodology of NMA is making steady progress. We can now pool individual participant data (IPD) in NMA, which enables more consistent and more precise comparisons and also detection of effect modifiers and prognostic factors for alternative treatments. The results then can contribute to stratified or personalized medical care. NMA can also be conducted cumulatively or sequentially, which will enable up-to-date evidence synthesis.
This symposium will showcase the cutting edge examples of modern NMA and its developments.