A Survey of Current Problems in Meta-Analysis: Discussion from the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research Inter-PORT Work Group on Literature Review/Meta-Analysis

The United States Agency for Health Care Policy and Research brought together representatives from each of the Patient Outcomes Research Teams (PORTs) as the Inter-PORT Meta-Analysis Work Group. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss a wide range of problems the panel had encountered in the area of meta-analysis. Several actual problems were presented, and tentative solutions to those problems were given. The PORTs had to consider issues such as quality assessment, survival analysis, rare events, sensitivity and specificity, and random effects models. The solutions presented represent the methods used by several researchers who are active in the area of meta-analysis.