Σύγκριση μεθόδων

	Μετα-αναλυτική Τυχαιοποιημένη Ελεγχόμενη Δοκιμή	Ανάλυση Δικτύου Μετα-ανάλυσης
Πεδίο	Επιδημιολογία	Σύνθεση Τεκμηρίων
Οικογένεια	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Έτος προέλευσης	1976 (Glass coinage of meta-analysis); 1993 (Cochrane Collaboration formalization)	2002
Δημιουργός	Gene V. Glass (meta-analysis method); Cochrane Collaboration (systematic RCT pooling standards)	Lumley (2002)
Τύπος	Quantitative evidence-synthesis design	Method
Θεμελιώδης πηγή	Higgins, J. P. T., Thomas, J., Chandler, J., Cumpston, M., Li, T., Page, M. J., & Welch, V. A. (Eds.). (2019). Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN: 978-1119536628	Lumley, T. (2002). Network meta-analysis for indirect treatment comparisons. Statistics in Medicine, 21(16), 2313–2324.
Εναλλακτικές ονομασίες	meta-analytic RCT, MA-RCT, meta-analysis of RCTs, pooled randomized trial analysis	Mixed Treatment Comparison, MTC, Indirect Comparison Meta-Analysis
Συναφείς	3	1
Σύνοψη	A meta-analytic randomized clinical trial is a formal evidence-synthesis method that identifies, appraises, and statistically combines the results of multiple randomized clinical trials addressing the same clinical question. By pooling trial-level data, it produces a single, more precise estimate of treatment effect and quantifies between-trial heterogeneity, sitting at the apex of the evidence hierarchy for evaluating healthcare interventions.	Network meta-analysis (NMA) is a systematic method for comparing multiple interventions simultaneously within a single analytical framework, incorporating both direct evidence (head-to-head trials) and indirect evidence (comparisons via common comparators). First formalized by Lumley in 2002, NMA allows researchers to rank treatments and quantify comparative effectiveness even when some treatment pairs have never been directly studied.