METAANALYSIS - AN INTRODUCTION AND POINT-OF-VIEW

In this paper, we introduce meta-analysis as a process that can provid e a logical structure for the introduction of quantitative methods for the review, evaluation, and synthesis of information from different s tudies. The goal is to offer some guidance to the physician-researcher in the interpretation of published mete-analyses, as well as framewor k for his or her own review of subject matter literature and meta-anal ysis literature.