Friday, 29 March 2024, 1:39 AM
Site: EUPATI Open Classroom
Course: EUPATI Open Classroom (EUPATI Open Classroom)
Glossary: Glossary
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Medical Subject Headings

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is an online controlled vocabulary that lists words, groups of synonyms and related concepts, for the purpose of indexing journal articles and books in the life sciences that facilitates searching.

It was created and updated by the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), it permits searching at various levels of specificity and allows retrieval of documents in different languages. MeSH is also used by ClinicalTrials.gov registry to classify which diseases are studied by trials registered in ClinicalTrials.gov.

Medical technology assessment

The objective evaluation of a medical technology regarding its safety and performance, its (future) impact on clinical and non-clinical patient outcomes as well as its interactive effects on economical, organizational, social, juridical and ethical aspects of healthcare. Medical technologies are assessed both in absolute terms and in comparison to other (combinations of) medical technologies, procedures, treatments or doing-nothing.

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency

Medicines development

The term medicines development refers to the scientific and regulatory processes put in place in the attempt to bring a new medicine to the market. It is often used synonymously with drug development. EUPATI has chosen to use the term medicines development throughout its texts.

Medicines Evaluation Board

Dutch National Competent Authority. http://english.cbg-meb.nl/"

Medicines regulation

Medicines regulation is a system that promotes and protects public health. It applies scientific knowledge and is based on national and international laws, to prevent the use of medicines that do not work, are of poor quality, and/or that may be harmful.

Systems vary around the world but generally medicines regulation aims to:

  • Assess the safety, efficacy and quality of medicines, and issue marketing authorisations.
  • License and monitor manufacturers and dispensers of medicines.
  • Monitor the quality of medicines.
  • Monitor the safety of medicines under development and in general use including collecting and analysing adverse reaction reports.
  • Provide independent information on medicines to professionals and the public.

Member State

Member State

Meta-analysis

Meta-analysis refers to methods used to compare and combine results from different, completed (reported or published), independent studies. It aims to identify patterns, to verify results, and to identify relevant relationships arising from multiple studies.

Meta-analysis can be thought of as conducting research about previous researchâ„¢. In its simplest form, meta-analysis is done by identifying a common statistical measure that is shared between studies, and calculating an average of that common measure.

The reason for doing a meta-analysis is to achieve a higher statistical power, as opposed to a less precise measure calculated from a single study. In performing a meta-analysis, an investigator must make many choices which can affect the results. Such choices may include, for example, how to search for studies, how to select or exclude studies, how to deal with incomplete data, and how best to analyse the data.

Metabolome

The metabolome is the complete set of small molecule chemicals found in a specific cell, organ, or organism at a given time. The metabolome may include small molecule chemicals naturally produced by an organism (some sugars, vitamins, and pigments for example) as well as those not naturally produced by an organism (for example medicines, environmental contaminants, and food additives).

The metabolome can change over a period of just seconds or minutes, and changes can be caused by a huge number of things. For example, the metabolome might change as a result of changes in the organismâ„¢s environment, or after taking in food or changing activity levels.

Metabolomics is the scientific study of the metabolome.

Metastasis

Metastasis is the spread of tumour cells from the original site (the primary site) to another part of the body. Tumours can metastasise by invading nearby tissue, or by spreading through the circulation (blood and lymphatic system).