Researchers from the Epidemiology, Public Health, and Primary Care Area at the Sant Pau Research Institute (IR Sant Pau), led by Dr. Pablo Alonso Coello, a researcher at the Institute, have developed an innovative tool called ROBVALU to assess the risk of bias in studies included in systematic reviews and health guidelines. This advancement promises to enhance the reliability of evidence-based decisions in the healthcare field.
Dr. Alonso highlights the importance of the value or significance assigned to health outcomes in healthcare decision-making. “People’s values are a crucial factor in healthcare decision-making. The certainty of an intervention’s effect on benefits and harms depends on two factors: the certainty of the measured effect on an outcome and the certainty of its value, also known as utility or importance,” explains this expert.
ROBVALU is not only applied in systematic reviews but also supports health research assessments, where the risk of bias in the variables used determines the certainty of the model’s results. These assessments encompass decision analysis, cost-utility or cost-effectiveness analysis for the evaluation of health technologies, health policies, and coverage decision-making.
The tool uses a systematic approach to identify and assess potential biases in research. This includes evaluating the study design, data collection methods, and result analysis.
According to Dr. Alonso, the implementation of ROBVALU has proven effective in identifying biases in a variety of studies, thereby improving the certainty of health research results. By providing a clear assessment of the risk of bias, researchers, and policymakers can make more informed and evidence-based decisions.
Reference Article
Karam, S. G., Zhang, Y., Pardo-Hernandez, H., Siebert, U., Koopman, L., Noyes, J., Tarride, J-E., Stevens, A. L., Welch, V., Saz-Parkinson, Z., Ens, B., Devji, T., Xie, F., Hazlewood, G., Mbuagbaw, L., Alonso-Coello, P., Brozek, J. L., & Schünemann, H. J. (2024). ROBVALU: a tool for assessing risk of bias in studies about people’s values, utilities, or importance of health outcomes. BMJ, 385, e079890. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2024-079890
