The national project ENCORE-MS (ENhancing COmmunication REsearch in Multiple Sclerosis) is carried out by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia along with Carlo Besta Institute in Milan and it is funded for 3 years by Italian Multiple Sclerosis Foundation (FISM).

The aim of the project is to investigate and improve the comprehensive, interpretation and usefulness of graphical representations presenting results from a complex methodology, called network meta-analysis (NMA), to different users. The NMA provides a synthesis of evidence when multiple health interventions are available for the same condition, even if they have not been compared to a single trail.

An online national survey is submitted to a sample representative of each group of users among health professionals, patients, policy makers and scientific journalists. A questionnaire ad-hoc is developed for each group presenting different representations of results from a NMA (Tramacere I et al. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2015) of studies assessing the efficacy of treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS).

The research group is formed by Roberto D’Amico, Cinzia Del Giovane e Roberto Vicini of the Italian Cocrane Centre and University of Reggio Emilia and by Graziella Filippini, Irene Tramacere and Andrea Fittipardo of the Carlo Besta Institute.

More information can be found at the website of the project: http://www.statisticamedica.unimore.it/encore-ms/