What this study adds?
- This meta-trial is a prospective individual patient data analysis of
on-going randomised trials and early phase studies, to determine
whether inhaled nebulised UFH improves outcomes in hospitalised
patients with COVID-19.
- The collective goal of this meta-trial is to reach a conclusion about
the efficacy of inhaled UFH in COVID-19 as quickly as possible by
pooling information from multiple clinical trials not originally
configured as a network.
- The pragmatic design effectively deals with recruitment difficulties
that could occur in individual studies given the uncertainties of the
international dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Individual studies contributing to the meta-trial are conducted in
multiple countries, which improves effect size estimates across
different conditions as well as the external validity of the results.