A multifaceted graphical display, including treatment ranking, was developed to aid interpretation of network meta-analysis.

Objectives

Network meta-analysis (NMA) is becoming a popular statistical tool for analyzing a network of evidence comparing more than two interventions. A particular advantage of NMA over pairwise meta-analysis is its ability to simultaneously compare multiple interventions including comparisons not previously trialed together, permitting intervention hierarchies to be created. Our aim was to develop a novel graphical display to aid interpretation of NMA to clinicians and decision-makers that incorporates ranking of interventions.

Study Design and Setting

Current literature was searched, scrutinized, and provided direction for developing the novel graphical display. Ranking results were often found to be misinterpreted when presented alone and, to aid interpretation and effective communication to inform optimal decision-making, need to be displayed alongside other important aspects of the analysis including the evidence networks and relative intervention effect estimates.

Results

Two new ranking visualizations were developed—the ‘Litmus Rank-O-Gram’ and the ‘Radial SUCRA’ plot—and embedded within a novel multipanel graphical display programmed within the MetaInsight application, with user feedback gained.

Conclusion

This display was designed to improve the reporting, and facilitate a holistic understanding, of NMA results. We believe uptake of the display would lead to better understanding of complex results and improve future decision-making.