Main glossary


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S

Scenarios

Alternative situations that a model can generate results for, as opposed to the default settings of the model.


Sensitive data

Under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), health data are considered sensitive data and are therefore subject to specific processing conditions


Sensitivity analyses

A group of methods which try and test how reliable the results of a model are. This is done by making small changes to the model and measuring the effect on the results.



Shelved

A drug for which development has been halted, sometimes because tests are not successful, but often because pursuing them simply does not present a tangible  business opportunity


Sponsor

In the conduct of a clinical trial, the sponsor is an individual or organisation that takes responsibility to initiate, manage or finance the clinical trial, but does not actually conduct the investigation


Stature

A person's natural height


Synthesis

The preparation of a drug/compound from its chemical components


Systematic review

Systematic reviews aim to bring together the results of all studies addressing a particular research question that have been carried out around the world. They provide a comprehensive and unbiased summary of the research. For example, one clinical trial may not give a clear answer about the effectiveness of a treatment. This might be because the difference between the treatments being tested was very small, or because only a small number of people took part in the trial. So systematic reviews are used to bring the results of a number of similar trials together, to piece together and assess the quality of all the evidence. Combining the results from a number of trials may give a clearer picture.