Those results do not impress me as to the value of their research. There is nothing there that isn’t covered by Up-to-Date (http://www.uptodate.com/home) and every hospital I’ve done stats work for (several, all over the country both community and academic) has provided their physicians with up to date access.
Your best bet (apparently) would be simply asking your physician for the up-to-date report for your diagnosis. If your physician does not have up-to-date access, get a referral to the nearest academic center.
I’m unsure why I’ve been voted down here- if shminux’s friend wants a version of a report similar in quality to what metamed can provide she can ask her physician if the physician has up-to-date (or an other research aggregator) access. If the physician doesn’t, its potentially a measure of quality (which can otherwise be hard to judge), and she should get a referral to an academic medical center, which will definitely have something like up-to-date available. This seems to me like decently practical advice for those who have insurance, but don’t have the money for metamed. I’m still relatively new so I’m requesting explicit feedback to improve the quality of my posts.
Edited to Add: According to the company, > 90% of American academic hospitals already have subscribed to Up-to-Date, so getting a referral to an academic center has a great chance of getting you to someone with already-paid-for-access to this sort of report.
I’m glad you linked competition, so we can compare similar industries for reference (I asked a very similar thing about Watson.) One item that stood out on their site:
Dr. Gordon Guyatt from McMaster University, who coined the term “evidence-based medicine,” makes 6-8 visits to UpToDate per year to work with UpToDate editors. Watch him in action with our physician editors as they review and analyze medical evidence that informs UpToDate graded recommendations.
And I was also able to find their methods for that grading as well, in case anyone wants to compare Meta Research Methods across Meta Research Organizations:
Those results do not impress me as to the value of their research. There is nothing there that isn’t covered by Up-to-Date (http://www.uptodate.com/home) and every hospital I’ve done stats work for (several, all over the country both community and academic) has provided their physicians with up to date access.
Your best bet (apparently) would be simply asking your physician for the up-to-date report for your diagnosis. If your physician does not have up-to-date access, get a referral to the nearest academic center.
I’m unsure why I’ve been voted down here- if shminux’s friend wants a version of a report similar in quality to what metamed can provide she can ask her physician if the physician has up-to-date (or an other research aggregator) access. If the physician doesn’t, its potentially a measure of quality (which can otherwise be hard to judge), and she should get a referral to an academic medical center, which will definitely have something like up-to-date available. This seems to me like decently practical advice for those who have insurance, but don’t have the money for metamed. I’m still relatively new so I’m requesting explicit feedback to improve the quality of my posts.
Edited to Add: According to the company, > 90% of American academic hospitals already have subscribed to Up-to-Date, so getting a referral to an academic center has a great chance of getting you to someone with already-paid-for-access to this sort of report.
I’m glad you linked competition, so we can compare similar industries for reference (I asked a very similar thing about Watson.) One item that stood out on their site:
http://www.uptodate.com/home/editorial
And I was also able to find their methods for that grading as well, in case anyone wants to compare Meta Research Methods across Meta Research Organizations:
http://www.uptodate.com/home/grading-guide