Trial By Error: And Cochrane Makes Another Move…
10 DECEMBER 2018
By David Tuller, DrPH
Yet another interesting development has taken place at Cochrane—and this new development again suggests that things there might be moving in the right direction. On Friday, the organization
withdrew a protocol for what is called an “individual patient data” review of exercise therapy for the illness it has referred to as chronic fatigue syndrome.
Given
recent related news involving Cochrane, this development led to some understandable confusion. So just to clarify: This is NOT
the exercise review that has been the subject of controversy over whether it would or would not be temporarily withdrawn. That basic exercise review focused on the published data from the papers included. Just ten days ago, Cochrane
rejected a revision of this basic exercise review and announced the upcoming development of a plan for a “full update.”
An IPD review is a more in-depth analysis than a basic review because it uses the actual trial data from the included studies rather than relying on the published numbers. The goal of an IPD review would be to provide what could be portrayed as even more authoritative findings to bolster those arising from a basic review. In any event, no IPD exercise review has been published. What has just been withdrawn is the protocol for such an IPD exercise review, which Cochrane published in 2014.
