Can treatment effects be estimated from observational data in heart failure

[SCYou (Seng Chan You)]

In this issue of European Heart Journal (2017 IF 23.4), the article ‘Association is not causation: treatment effects cannot be estimated from observational data in heart failure’ was published (https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article/39/37/3417/5063542) .

Authors compared the results from RWE with the results from RCT in patients with heart failure. Most of the drugs investigated in this study (ACEI, ARB, beta-blockers, MRA, statins, dogxin) are analyzed in LEGEND in Hypertension study . So, by changing the disease of interest, we can compare our result with RCTs, too.

[Christian_Reich]

@SCYou: Blow them out of the water.

[schuemie (Martijn Schuemie)]

Thanks @SCYou for pointing out this paper! Their findings are in line with ours as presented in our recent paper: published observational studies have poor reproducibility due to publication bias, study bias (e.g. confounding), and p-hacking. This is exactly why we need LEGEND (as will be presented at the symposium). I agree that comparing our results to the RCTs will be essential to convince others (and ourselves) that OHDSI is different.

[SCYou (Seng Chan You)]

Exactly, @schuemie !