Research in Medicine Flashcards

Question

How do meta-analyses differ from systematic reviews?

Answer 1

Meta-analysis only refers to the statistical analysis of data from multiple studies Systematic reviews may or may not include meta-analysis Meta-analyses can be selective with the studies they include whereas systematic reviews can not

Answer 2

an international not-for-profit organisation which aims to help people make well-informed decisions about healthcare by preparing, maintaining and promoting the accessibility of systematic reviews of the effects of health care interventions

Answer 3

Selection bias Performance bias Detection bias Attrition bias Reporting bias Publication bias

Answer 4

Moral principles that govern a person's behaviour or the conducting of an activity

Answer 5

Any strategy that will result in fewer animals being used in research

Answer 6

Modification of experimental procedures to minimise pain

Answer 7

Methods which avoid or replace the use of animals in research

Answer 8

a subset of placental-derived stem cells that display plasticity and immunomodulation, and possess advantages over the other populations of stem cell-like cells in the placental tissues

Answer 9

Refinement

Answer 10

Replacement

Answer 11

Amnion Epithelial Cells (hAEC)

Answer 12

Improving health Training the next generation of scientists Increasing knowledge Strengthening the economy Developing new technologies, products, and industries

Answer 13

* Remove red tape and improve processes * Open interactions among researchers, and more effective relations among companies, government, foundations, and universities * Increase resources * Have researchers/clinicians working in parallel * Less focus on mechanisms

Answer 14

* False positive data * Low statistical data * Poor experimental design * “Trimming and cooking the data” * failing to report all the data * Publish or perish * Impact publications * Number of publications * Decreased funding

Answer 15

1. A healthy & empowered community 2. Encourage giving 3. Research active health services deliver higher quality care 4. Developing implementation science – turning evidence into action 5. Collaborating for success 6. World class research needs world class researchers 7. Funding research 8. Encourage commercial investment in R&D 9. A strategic national approach 10. Reduce red tape

Answer 16

* Plagiarism * Falsifying/fabricating data * Duplicating results * Inappropriate finance management * Concealing conflicts of interest * Stealing other peoples research

Answer 17

It gets retracted

Answer 18

Increased pressure to publish

Answer 19

* **A veterinarian** (Category A) * **An animal researcher** (Category B) * **A welfare member** (Category C, "a person with demonstrable commitment to, and established experience, in furthering the welfare of animals") * **An independent lay person** (Category D, "an independent person who does not currently and has not previously conducted scientific or teaching activities using animals"). Each AEC also has the Animal Facility Manager or an animal technician as a member and the Animal Ethics Officer or Animal Welfare Officer in attendance. The C and D members are not employed by the institution. Monash adheres to the Victorian Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and Regulations 1986 (the law), and the NHMRC Australian Code for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes (8th edition, 2013).

Answer 20

Reduction Refinement Replacement

Answer 21

* the justification for the research * its likely impact on the animals * procedures for preventing or alleviating pain and distress.

Answer 22

In Australia, a researcher must obtain a licence from the NHMRC Licencing Committee to use excess human IVF embryos for research, including the derivation of new embryonic stem cell lines

Answer 23

Pluripotent properties Readily available Immunomodulatory properties Lack tumorigenicity Low immunigenicity Non invasive extraction procedures

Answer 24

§ Australia funds more than 700 clinical trials and invests more than $1 billion annually in research and development. § Of the 795 medicines approved for use in Australia over the last 10 years, 224 were a breakthrough using a newly discovered molecule. § These 224 breakthroughs: – were an average of 15 years in the making – requiring testing of 10,000 new molecules – were a $1.4 billion investment in research and development. – have changed the way 52 diseases are treated.

Answer 25

**§ Inappropriate Commercial Exploitation** – vitamins and nutritional supplements – Funding ie. tobacco or alcohol industry **§ Conflicting findings** – Reproducibility

Answer 26

• Disparate animal species and strains, with a variety of metabolic pathways and drug metabolites, leading to variation in efficacy and toxicity; • Different models for inducing illness or injury, with varying similarity to the human condition; • Variations in drug dosing schedules and regimens of uncertain relevance to the human condition; • Small experimental groups with inadequate statistical power; simple statistical analyses • Nuances in laboratory technique that may influence results, for example, methods for blinding investigators, being neither recognized nor reported; • Selection of outcome measures, which being surrogates or precursors of disease, are of uncertain relevance to the human clinical condition;

Answer 27

§ Since researchers are engaged in competition for positions and funding, many are choosing not to publish their non-significant findings that have: – less scientific interest – fewer citations – can generally only be published in lesser impact journals. § The amount of non-significant data reported is progressively declining § Negative findings are a valuable component of the scientific literature because – they force us to critically evaluate and validate our current thinking, and fundamentally move us towards unabridged science. Reducing the positive bias in the scientific literature

Answer 28

The purpose of the Code is to guide both institutions and researchers by describing what is considered to be the underpinning values of “good research practice” and provide institutions with a framework to resolve allegations of research misconduct.

Answer 29

§ Plagiarism § Falsifying/fabricating data § Duplicating results § Inappropriate finance management § Concealing conflicts of interest § Stealing other peoples research

Answer 30

In Australia, a researcher must obtain a licence from the NHMRC Licencing Committee to use excess human IVF embryos for research, including the derivation of new embryonic stem cell lines • All research that uses human tissues of any kind must be conducted under the highest ethical standards. This includes; • embryonic stem cells • adult stem cells • induced pluripotent stem cells • John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka (2012 Nobel Prize) • While some forms of stem cells are more widely accepted by the community, they all use donated human tissue and should be subject to the highest level of scrutiny.