23 Research has highlighted the need for further prognostic research in representative, real world populations of people with angina; such research might identify subgroups that benefit most from particular interventions.
Solutions include a systematic approach to the design, conduct, reporting, replication, and clinical translation of prognostic research; as well as the education of researchers, clinicians, and the general public.
However, the advanced quantitative analysis of medical images, especially CT, MR and PET, is gaining substantial interest in prognostic research as more accurate prognostic models may be developed.
Quantitative analysis of PET is gaining substantial interest in prognostic research but requires the accurate definition of the metabolic tumour volume.
Much prognostic research is stuck at generating "publishable units", without any interest in conclusively proving their worth, let alone moving them into real life applications.
The pros and cons of composite end points in prognostic research are discussed, and an adaptation method, designed to accurately adjust absolute risks for a composite end point to risks for the individual component outcomes, is presented.
More prognostic research is needed.
In prognostic research, prediction rules are generally statistically derived.
See Moons et al [ 2] for a general discussion of prognostic research.
However, another potentially important result from prognostic research is the treatment implications of subgroup-targeted treatment.
Valid absolute risks, which are indispensable to prognostic research, can be readily calculated.
