Journal Club Summary
Methodology Score: 3/5
Usefulness Score: 2/5
Blum CA, Nigro N Briel M, et al. Lancet. 2015 Jan 16. pii: S0140-6736(14)62447-8.
This randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial demonstrated an improved time to ‘clinical stability’ in patients treated with prednisone for community acquired pneumonia. The study did not examine a clinically important primary outcome, and so the relevance of their findings is of questionable significance; prednisone is not yet ready to be considered the standard of care in community-acquired pneumonia.
By: Dr. Shahbaz Syed
(Presented March 2015)
Epi lesson: Survival Analyses
Survival analyses are used in clinical trials that follow patients over time for primary outcomes such as death, relapse, adverse drug reaction, or development of a new disease. The follow-up time may range from hours to years and a different set of statistical procedures are employed to analyze the data. Terms frequently seen in papers with survival analyses include Cox proportional hazard model, hazard ratio, Kaplan-Meir curve.
By: Dr. Ian Stiell
By: Dr. Ian Stiell
