About us
Please note, you can click the names in the table for more information about the team members.
 | Dr Brooke Levis | Course Leader |
|---|---|---|
 | Dr Melanie Holden | Course Leader |
 | Professor Richard Riley | Course Leader |
 | Dr Joie Ensor | Course Faculty |
 | Professor Danielle van der Windt | Course Faculty |
 | Dr Miriam Hattle | Course Faculty |
For queries, please contact Dr Brooke Levis: b.levis@keele.ac.uk
Funding
This project was funded by NIHR Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) Support Funding. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.
Textbooks
Dedicated Textbooks:
- Riley RD, Tierney J, Stewart LA (Eds). Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis: A Handbook for Healthcare Research. Wiley 2021 (in-press)
Other textbooks that cover IPD meta-analysis in a chapter:
- Higgins JPT, Thomas J, Chandler J, et al., editors. Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions (2nd Edition). Chichester (UK): John Wiley & Sons, 2019.
- Riley RD, van der Windt D, Croft P, et al., editors. Prognosis Research in Healthcare: Concepts, Methods and Impact. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2019.
- Egger M, Davey Smith G, Altman DG. Systematic reviews in health care: meta-analysis in context. London: BMJ Publishing Group 2001.
- Whitehead A. Meta-analysis of Controlled Clinical Trials. West Sussex: Wiley 2002.
- Cooper H, Hedges LV, Valentine JC, editors. The Handbook of Research Synthesis and Meta-Analysis (Third Edition). New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2019.
- Schmid CH, Stijnen T, White IR, editors. Handbook of Meta-Analysis. New York: Chapman and Hall/CRC, 2020.
Training courses
Individual participant data meta-analyses: A practical introduction for healthcare research - 14-15 October 2021, Keele University (virtual delivery)
The 2-day course will use a combination of talks, interactive activities, external speakers, and one-to-one ‘meet the expert sessions’ to improve your knowledge and skills in the design and practical delivery of IPD meta-analyses. It will cover the steps involved and help you decide whether an IPD meta-analysis is likely to be worth the investment. Whilst examples will focus on clinical trials, the course will also be relevant for other types of IPD meta-analyses.
Specific topics to be included in the course are:
- The what, why and when of IPD meta-analyses
- Selection and retrieval of IPD
- Issues involved in data transfer, cleaning, and harmonization
- Quality and risk of bias assessments
- Statistical approaches to IPD meta-analysis
- Power calculations
- The role of patient and public involvement
- Reporting and dissemination
This course is intended for a broad audience of statisticians and non-statisticians, including healthcare researchers, study/data managers, funders, journal editors, clinicians, students, and others who are involved in the delivery, appraisal, and/or interpretation of IPD meta-analyses.
For more info, download the course flyer (PDF) or contact the course leader, Dr Brooke Levis.
Visit our events page for this workshop to register.
Statistical methods for meta-analysis of individual participant data
(May 2021, likely to be online only), Keele University
This 3-day statistical course provides a detailed foundation of the methods and principles for meta-analysis when IPD (Individual Participant Data) are available from multiple related studies.
The course considers continuous, binary and time-to-event outcomes, and covers a variety of modelling options, including fixed effect and random effects. Days 1 and 2 mainly focus on the synthesis of IPD from randomised trials of interventions, where the aim is to summarise a treatment effect or to examine treatment-covariate interactions. We outline how to use either a two-stage framework or a one-stage framework for the meta-analysis, and compare their pros and cons. Day 3 focuses on novel extensions including multivariate and network meta-analysis of IPD to incorporate correlated and indirect evidence (e.g. from multiple outcomes or multiple treatment comparisons).
Special topics will also be covered, including:
- IPD meta-analysis to identify prognostic/risk factors,
- IPD meta-analysis of test accuracy studies;
- Estimating the power of a planned IPD meta-analysis; and
- Dealing with unavailable IPD. The course consists of a mixture of lectures and practical sessions to reinforce the underlying statistical concepts. Participants can choose either Stata or R for the practicals.
The course is aimed at individuals that want to learn how to plan and undertake an IPD meta-analysis. We recommend that participants have a background in statistics as the course assumes a good understanding of core statistical principles and topics, such as regression methods (such as linear, logistic, and Cox), parameter estimation and interpreting software output.
Due to the current pandemic, this course will run online, 5-7 May 2021.
For more info, visit our short course page.
To register interest, please contact course leader, Dr Joie Ensor.
Citing the toolbox
This toolbox was published on the 1st January 2021.
Please cite the toolbox as:
Levis B, Holden MA, Hattle M, Riley R,van Der Windt D, Campbell L, Fulton S, Ensor J. The Keele Toolbox for IPD Meta-analyses. 1st January 2021. https://www.keele.ac.uk/pcsc/research/ctu/whatweoffer/educationandtraining/ipdmatoolbox/