Welcome to the ERICAS library of real-world evidence in cardiometabolic medicine!
We all know the importance of cardiometabolic health. It is an important and rapidly changing area, encompassing cardiovascular and metabolic (e.g. diabetes) diseases and associated disorders, such as hypertension and kidney disease. We know that there has been a rapid increase in cardiometabolic conditions over the last few decades, mainly because of rises in obesity and sedentary lifestyles, which highlights the importance of finding preventive strategies.
ERICAS (Evidence RevIew on CArdiometabolic observational Studies) is a new and exciting initiative that aims to provide clinicians, researchers, policy makers and commissioners working in cardiometabolic medicine with contemporary good quality real-world evidence in the literature. Our website presents good quality evidence that has been evaluated by epidemiologists and statisticians alongside clinical reviews from our Real World Evidence team and growing body of faculty members. We provide alerting mechanisms, searching facilities and summary blogs (like this one!) to engage our stakeholders.
Leicester Real World Evidence Unit’s working definition of Real-world Data is data that relate to the real-world clinical setting. Such data are large, representative, comprehensive, current, reproducible and extendable and usually comprise surveillance, routine or survey data. Real-world Evidence is produced when real-world data are used to help clinicians to make decisions. Real-world evidence is rapidly taking off in the healthcare sector because it can complement clinical trials by showing how interventions can be applied in everyday clinical practice. It can also provide additional unique insights into the costs and clinical effectiveness of interventions, treatments, best clinical practice and unmet needs.
There is a huge amount of literature published every year that relates to cardiometabolic health and claims to be real-world evidence. With limited time available it can be difficult for clinicians, researchers, policy makers and commissioners to keep up-to-date with the latest good quality real-world evidence. This means that important research can be missed that may help clinicians to give the right advice to patients or gain a better understanding of the costs and impact of therapies to treat and prevent cardiometabolic diseases.
Professor Kamlesh Khunti (Director of Leicester Real World Evidence Unit)
