Saving Lives by Modifying the Process of Science: Estimated Historical Mortality Associated with the Failure to Conduct Routine Prospective Cumulative Systematic Reviews |Biomedgrid

Cumulative meta-analysis, or “living systematic reviews,” can save lives. Using epidemiologic methods and findings from a classic study of interventions to reduce heart attack mortality (Antman 1992), we estimated annual deaths that may have occurred because cumulative metaanalyses were not conducted. Failure to use knowledge that would have been available with cumulative meta-analysis may have resulted in 41,000 deaths annually from non-use of intravenous dilators, 35,000 deaths annually from aspirin non-use, and 37,000 deaths annually from ß-blockers non-use. The consequences of failure to routinely conduct cumulative meta-analyses are 1) non-use of effective interventions, 2) continued use of ineffective/harmful interventions, and 3) unnecessary research.