Objectives: To understand the statistical methodology of network meta-analyses and the assumptions underlying its validity.
Description: Network meta-analysis is the statistical methodology used to combine evidence from multiple clinical trials comparing more than two interventions. This workshop focuses on statistical methodology for network meta-analysis. The workshop will provide insight into the standard models that are used to derive estimates of the relative effects of all treatments of interest. We will explore the different implementation alternatives through worked examples, and we will discuss the underlying assumptions extensively. We will present approaches to check for, and incorporate, inconsistency in results arising from different parts of the network of evidence, and we will describe extensions to examine the effects of covariates using network meta-regression. Finally, we will discuss some issues around the role of bias in network meta-analysis.