• Sumit Mohan and Jai Radhakrishnan.
• Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York 10032, USA. sm2206@columbia.edu
• Kidney Int. 2010 Dec 1;78(11):1080-7.

AbstractThere has been an exponential increase in the number of nephrological meta-analyses published, but their relative contribution to the nephrology literature is unclear and their influence on physician behavior and evidence-based patient care is poorly understood. We studied the nephrology literature, point-of-care resources, guidelines, and a questionnaire survey of the New York Society of Nephrology membership to understand the role and perception of meta-analyses in nephrology. We discuss our results in the context of the strengths and limitations of meta-analyses and their relatively limited, albeit increasing influence on published guidelines and on point-of-care references. The results of our practitioner survey and our review of the nephrology literature suggest an increasing influence at the level of the individual practitioner of meta-analyses. This underlines the need to develop a better understanding of the contributions and role of meta-analyses in the literature.

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