Background:
Evidence synthesis is a method of bringing together all the evidence on a particular topic in a systematic way and coming to a conclusion about what that evidence tells us. It is important for researchers, and those making health or healthcare decisions, whether clinicians, policymakers or patients, understand the evidence underpinning those decisions. A clinician, for example, might be deciding on the most effective type of medicine to prescribe or most accurate diagnostic test to order. In these situations, we need to know what, on balance, the totality of the evidence tells us.
Aim:
In this workshop we will introduce the basic steps for undertaking a systematic review. These steps include formatting a research question, searching for studies and deciding which of the studies we find are suitable for answering the research question. We will also outline methods of assessing how confident or certain we can be of our findings.
By the end of the workshop, participants should understand the steps of a systematic review and understand why systematic reviews matter. We hope that this will inform their future decision making in health and healthcare.
To read more and register see the ESI website.