Evidence-based healthcare

We synthesize knowledge

Despite all the meta-analyses and integrative reviews, despite all the published guidelines, and despite all the “talk” about evidence-based health care, the uptake remains limited and often does not reach the point of care and decisions about individual patients.

In addition to examining how guideline-congruent practice is associated with improved patient outcomes, MATRIX45 assists its clients in the development of guidelines, their translation to patient care, and their integration at the point of care.

We synthesize knowledge. We trace our quantitative evidence synthesis (aka meta-analysis) to the early 1980s when this term was barely known. We have stayed up to date with the evolutions in methods, generating meta-analyses in lockstep with innovation in complex analytics. We bring an edge in this: drawing on our own clinical training and our collaboration with clinical experts across the spectrum of illness and health, we are able to bridge knowledge synthesis and patient care.

It’s about changing clinicians’ practice behaviors

Clinicians want support that fits (as) seamlessly (as possible) into the clinical process.

We have worked with clients on designing science-and-service projects focused on:

• risk management, including vulnerable or difficult-to-reach populations
• guidance (rather than “prescriptive” support) in managing patients
• assessment of patient outcomes
• benchmarking practice outcomes

In the end, it is about changing clinicians’ practice behaviors. Though perhaps reluctant, clinicians are not resistant to change. They want tangible assurance that a treatment will work for their patients. Hematologists may decide to treat, say, their next ten newly diagnosed lymphoma patients with a new regimen “to see if this works as it should.” They want to experiment a bit on their own, in their own practice, and with their own patients. We refer to this as micro-trialing: clinicians seeking confidence in new treatments by systematically observing the effectiveness of treatments in a small sample of their patients – as the basis for changing how they manage their patients.