Ranking of treatments in network meta-analysis: incorporating minimally important differences

In network meta-analysis (NMA), the magnitude of difference between treatment effects is typically ignored in the calculation of ranking metrics, such as probability best and surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRAs). This leads to treatment rankings which may not reflect clinically meaningful differences. Minimally important differences (MIDs) represent the smallest value in a given outcome that is considered by patients or clinicians to represent a meaningful difference between treatments. There is a lack of literature on how MIDs can be incorporated into common NMA ranking metrics such as SUCRAs to give more clinically oriented treatment rankings.