This guide will take approximately 3 minutes to complete.
The purpose of this guide is to walk you through how to explore whether an underlying disease or an indication under evaluation can lead to an adverse event (AE).
Step 0: Log in
Refer to https://med.causaly.com
TIP! In case you’ve forgotten your password, you can recover it here.
Step 1: Explore the direct relationship between an indication and an AE of interest
Select the Intelligent Search option on the Causaly home page (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Use the Intelligent Search option from the Causaly homepage.
Example: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Vitamin D deficiency (Intelligent Search link).
To explore the direct relationship between an indication and an AE, start by typing keywords in the input box. The system will suggest relevant concepts below and you can select the most relevant one(s) to your search.
“Multiple sclerosis” and “vitamin D deficiency” are filled in the input box in the provided example. The system proposed the displayed search topics. In order to explore the relationship between the two concepts, the first option will be selected (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Select the 1st search topic to investigate the direct relationship between them in Intelligent Search.
You can now browse the results and investigate the associations in an Articles or Grid view (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Browse results using the “Articles” or “Grid” tabs.
TIP!
- Causaly will include narrower and related concepts by default, in order to increase the sensitivity of your search. You can review them by clicking on the “View related concepts” option of the disorder or AE (Figure 4).
Figure 4. Explore the narrower and related concepts of the disorder or AE.
- Click on the “Save” button to save your search and create alerts. You will receive notifications when new data regarding a relationship of interest become available (Figure 5).
Figure 5. Click on the “Save” button to save searches.
- Learn more about how to select the best terms for your search here.
Step 2: Investigate the epidemiology of an AE in patients with the underlying disease of interest
Example: Prevalence and incidence of Vitamin D deficiency in Multiple Sclerosis patients (Epidemiology link).
After establishing a relationship between the AE and disease of interest, such as that between MS and vitamin D deficiency, you can explore the prevalence and incidence of vitamin D deficiency in patients with MS in the Epidemiology module.
The Epidemiology module can be used to find quantitative data regarding prevalence and incidence of a condition (Figure 6).
Figure 6: Click on the Epidemiology tab at the top of the page to access the module.
Type the AE, in this case vitamin D deficiency, in the input box. Select the relevant concept to view the results (Figure 7).
Figure 7: Select the concept of interest to look for related epidemiology data.
Refine your search to the subpopulation of interest, in this case multiple sclerosis patients, by typing “multiple sclerosis” in the keyword box (Figure 8).
Figure 8: Use the keyword box to refine search results.
Step 3: Explore the relationship between a concomitant indication and an AE of interest in patients with a specific underlying disease
Example: Diabetes and Vitamin D deficiency in Multiple Sclerosis patients (Advanced Search link).
Investigate whether a concomitant disease exacerbates the AE in patients with an underlying disease of interest. For example, you can examine whether diabetes affects vitamin D deficiency in multiple sclerosis patients.
Here, the relationship under investigation is the one between the concomitant disease and the AE, in this example between diabetes and vitamin D deficiency. Type “diabetes” and “vitamin D deficiency” in the input box and explore the relationship between the two concepts.
To refine the search to a subpopulation of interest, in this case multiple sclerosis patients, type “multiple sclerosis” in the keyword box (Figure 9).
Figure 9: Explore the relationship between diabetes and vitamin D deficiency.