CM. A brief note on Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis. A strategy to reduce wasted biomedical research

https://doi.org/10.47449/CM.2020.1.1.15

Professor Arturo Martí-Carvajal, from the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Carabobo, Venezuela, is a long-standing academic with a distinguished career in clinical practice, teaching, and clinical research in Venezuela as well as in other important universities abroad. Here, we asked Dr. Marti-Carvajal, to give us a glimpse of systematic reviews and meta-analysis, both of which comprise fundamental tools to assess epidemiological study designs of a mass of research data, such as the tons of information being produced every week on Covid-19. The reader could then learn the basic features of meta-analysis, for instance, to explore some of the works presented here in our Portal, both at CientMed and the Covid-19 section. To get an idea of the so many publications on Covid-19, by August 28th, 2020, a study in Scientometrics reported, «23,634 unique documents…were published between January 1 and June 30, 2020.» With respect to the number of a meta-analysis of Covid-19, PubMed reports 773 articles as of September 29, 2020. The need is there to get a handle and grasp this epidemiological tool. We thought that the best guide for this endeavor would be no other than Professor Marti-Carvajal.

Rafael Rangel-Aldao, Editor

Professor, Arturo Martí-Carvajal received his undergraduate degree in Medicine and Surgery at the Faculty of Health Sciences of Universidad de Carabobo, 1972-1978. From 1979 to 1986, he was a fellow in Internal Medicine and Hematology at the Central Hospital of Valencia, Carabobo State, Venezuela. From 1987 to 1988, he was a fellow in bone marrow transplantation at the Clinical Hospital of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. As a fellow, he has got the highest grades (10/10). As a scientist, Arturo Martí-Carvajal was trained from 1995-1997 at the Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco, Chile, where he received an MSc in Clinical Epidemiology (With the highest distinction). Later on, in 2012-2015, he was conferred the degree of Ph.D. in Biomedical Methodological Researcher and Public Health (With the highest honor) at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain. There he received the special award for doctoral Studies (2019). His research lines are Evidence-based Medicine, and systematic review and meta-analysis, in Pharmacology intervention, mainly. Five relevant publications are, Martí-Carvajal AJ, Solà I, Lathyris D. Homocysteine-lowering interventions for preventing cardiovascular events. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017;8(8): CD006612 (565 citations en Academic Google); Martí-Carvajal AJ, Solà I, Gluud C, Lathyris D, Cardona AF. Human recombinant protein C for severe sepsis and septic shock in adult and pediatric patients. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2012;(12): CD004388 (565 citations en Academic Google; Martí-Carvajal AJ. Valli C, Martí-Amarista CE, Solà I, Martí-Fábregas J, Bonfill Cosp X. Citicoline for treating people with acute ischemic stroke. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020;8:CD013066 (the most recent); Martí-Carvajal A. Proper Randomization Reduces the Chance of Waste Biomedical Research. [Chapter 2]. In: Vance Berger (Ed). Randomization, Masking, and Allocation Concealment. London, United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2017; Martí-Carvajal A. Taking aim at a moving target. When a study changes in the middle. In: Streiner, D. L., & Sidani, S. When Research Goes Off the Rails. New York: Guilford Press. 2009. He was the recipient of the National Prize of the Colombian Hematology and Oncology Association (2012). In 2011, he was the recipient of PAHO Iberoamerican Cochrane Network for the Americas’ best protocols in the year for the protocol “Pharmacological interventions for treating dyslipidemia in patients with HIV infection” and “Decontamination of environmental surfaces in hospitals to reduce hospital-acquired infections.” In 2010, he received the PAHO Iberoamerican Cochrane Network for the first finalist of the best review of the Americas: “Homocysteine lowering intervention for preventing cardiovascular events.” He has recently been appointed a member of the editorial board of Systematic Reviews, and the Journal of Evidence-based Medicine. His name is cited as Contributors in A Dictionary of Epidemiology. His ResearchGate index is 39.58 (2,254 citations). His Google Academic index is 27 (2921 citations). He is a Visiting Professor at the Universidad UTE (Ecuador) and Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Madrid, Spain. Dr. Martí-Carvajal lives in Venezuela.