Precision Evidence

• In the Covid-19 vaccine trials, there is an essential difference between the relative reduction of risk for covid19 provided by vaccination and the absolute risk reduction for the individual person. But can we expect to find that information in the papers referring the trials - and will we be able to compare results between the different vaccines?
• Furthermore, must the study population in the vaccine trials reflect those expected to benefit from vaccination. And that seems to be a problem too.
• In this episode, we are looking at what kind of relevant information we need from the upcoming Covid-19 vaccine trials - and how you can get that information

Links: 

• FDA guidance https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/covid-19-related-guidance-documents-industry-fda-staff-and-other-stakeholders
• JAMA Internernal Medicine, Older People: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2771091
• Vaccine Efficacy Needed for a COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccine to Prevent or Stop an Epidemic as the Sole Interventionhttps://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(20)30284-1/fulltext#:~:text=This%20study%20found%20that%20the,(e.g.%2C%20social%20distancing)

Notes:

• We will get the most valuable information from well designed clinical trials proving high protection for Covid-19 and high safety for those vaccinated based on analysis from a broad study population
• FDA requires in their guideline and recommendation at least 50% protection
• That is a relative risk reduction of 50%, but how does that translate into the absolute risk
• Computational models have calculated the need for higher protection
• How about precision in terms of study population and usefulness of data
• Why the comparison between different studies is not possible, and how you can get around that

We will review published Covid-19 vaccine trials here at the Precision Evidence Podcast, so be sure to subscribe and share with friends!

Contact us at email: [email protected],

Twitter @PrecisionEBM,

website: www.precision-evidence.com

Hosts:

Dr. Kim Kristiansen, M.D: @KKristiansenMD

JG Staal: @HealthyEvidence

Music thanks to mixkit.co

In this episode of the Precision Evidence Podcast, we look at the hot topic of evidence behind the use of face masks as we are in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Does and can evidence-based medicine and clinical relevance play a role here?

What do we know? What do we think we know? And what do we want to know?

Links:

• Duke Study around 14 types of masks https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/36/eabd3083
• RCT in progress: Reduction in COVID-19 Infection Using Surgical Facial Masks Outside the Healthcare System https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/research/coronavirus/publication/32829745
• How to properly put on and take of a face mask  https://uihc.org/health-topics/how-properly-put-and-take-face-mask

• DOTS (Duration-Opportunity-Transmision-Susceptibility) https://www.the-scientist.com/reading-frames/connecting-the-dots-67839

Notes:

• Healthcare was unprepared for the Covod-19 pandemic
• We want to be guided by evidence-based medicine – high-quality research, preferably randomized controlled studies (RCT)
• Researchers collect evidence as the pandemic is running
• Unfortunately, there are many low-quality medial papers published about Covid-19
• Evidence around types of masks like N-95 and surgical masks
• Observational studies can provide information about correlation but not causality
• The challenge of Randomized Controlled Trials with face masks and Covid-19
• Spreading of aerosols and droplets
• Other ways of spreading COVID-19 like how to handle masks
• Duke study around 14 types of masks
• Active randomized controlled studies
• What are we looking for in face maks studies
• Precision Evidence in face mask studies
• Follow-up in upcoming episodes

Contact us at email: [email protected],

Twitter @PrecisionEBM,

website: www.precision-evidence.com

Hosts:

Dr. Kim Kristiansen, M.D: @KKristiansenMD

JG Staal: @HealthyEvidence

Music thanks to mixkit.co 

The Precision Evidence Podcast is the podcast for those in healthcare interested in finding, evaluating, and using medical research that is meaningful to patients. 

Hosted by

Dr. Kim Kristiansen, M.D.  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-kristiansen - Twitter: @KKristiansenMD

A family physician with 30 years of clinical experience, a peer reviewer for medical journals, and former TEDMED research scholar

J.G Staal https://www.linkedin.com/in/jgstaal - Twitter: @HealthyEvidence

Work in the field of Data Analytics & Data Science. Interested in clinical research as a caregiver and having a hard time making sense of research and, in particular, understanding what is relevant and clinically significant

• We want to focus on evaluating clinical research and finding outcomes that are meaningful to patients and applicable to the individual patient. That is what we call Precision Evidence
• HealthCare is based – or rathe depends - on research. Still, the quality and meaningfulness of the findings and the trials and how they are designed and run are often not relevant or useful from a clinical perspective.
• What if any health decision would rely on clinically relevant and meaningful information applicable to the individual patient? That's easier said than done, so this podcast aims to discuss and explore both the need and the ways to find this information / separating the news from the news from the fake news, if you will. Unfortunately, this information can be tough to find. It is not sufficient to read the abstract of a medical paper, let alone the headline or a recap. And even though you can screen a paper by Its abstract - it is crucial to dig deeper into the paper.
• Evidence in Evidence-Based Medicine has a different meaning in healthcare than in everyday life
• Not clinically relevant clinical research is a big problem
• In the Precision Evidence Podcast, we will focus on finding clinically relevant and meaningful research applicable to the individual patient.
• We will analyze published research and have conversations with people in the field like healthcare professionals, researchers, patients, and caregivers, investors, payers, politicians, regulatory authorities; the list of stakeholders is long

Contact us [email protected]

Twitter @PrecisionEBM

website: www.precision-evidence.com

Music thanks to mixkit.co