Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32213178›Full record

ArticleBMC medicine2020

Non-confirming replication of "Performance of InSilicoVA for assigning causes of death to verbal autopsies: multisite validation study using clinical diagnostic gold standards," by Flaxman et al.

Zehang Richard Li, Tyler H McCormick, Samuel J Clark

Abstract readMulticenter Study
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in BMC medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Article
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Zehang Richard LiDepartment of Biostatistics, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, USA.
Tyler H McCormickDepartment of Statistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Samuel J ClarkDepartment of Sociology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA. work@samclark.net.

Funding

Verbal Autopsy: Reimagining Data & Automated Cause Assignment (using ALPHA Network data)R01HD086227 · NICHD · OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY · PI CLARK, SAMUEL J · 2016 to 2021
$2.4M
Estimating vital rates in the developing world: A Bayesian process modeling approachK01HD078452 · NICHD · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · PI MCCORMICK, TYLER · 2015 to 2019
$611k
NICHD NIH HHS K01 HD078452NICHD NIH HHS R01 HD086227
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundA verbal autopsy (VA) is an interview conducted with the caregivers of someone who has recently died to describe the circumstances of the death. In recent years, several algorithmic methods have been developed to classify cause of death using VA data. The performance of one method-InSilicoVA-was evaluated in a study by Flaxman et al., published in BMC Medicine in 2018. The results of that study are different from those previously published by our group.

methodsBased on the description of methods in the Flaxman et al. study, we attempt to replicate the analysis to understand why the published results differ from those of our previous work.

resultsWe failed to reproduce the results published in Flaxman et al. Most of the discrepancies we find likely result from undocumented differences in data pre-processing, and/or values assigned to key parameters governing the behavior of the algorithm.

conclusionThis finding highlights the importance of making replication code available along with published results. All code necessary to replicate the work described here is freely available on GitHub.

Indexed as

AutopsyCause of DeathHumansResearch DesignValidation Studies as TopicCause of deathInSilicoVAReplication codeReproducible researchVerbal autopsy

Identifiers

PMID32213178
PMCPMC7098138

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.