Program Description
Systematic reviews (SR) are increasingly used to inform clinical and public health practice. SR seek to collate all evidence that fits pre-specified eligibility criteria in order to address a specific research question. This 3-day course will present an overview of the explicit and systematic methods used in SR to minimize bias. Together we will learn step by step how to actually perform, report, and critically appraise SR. We will focus primarily on methods for SR of randomized trials and will discuss how to extend them to SR of observational studies. Participants are encouraged to register for our companion 2-day course on meta-analysis.
Competencies
Participants will learn to:
- Identify the critical steps when planning a systematic review
- Plan a search strategy to identify studies in published and grey literature and carry it out
- Select studies and collect data
- Assess risk of bias in selected studies and address reporting bias
- Report and discuss the results of systematic reviews
Intended Audience
Clinicians, researchers, public health specialists and other health care professionals who want to perform and/or evaluate systematic reviews
Required knowledge/pre-requisites
Basic knowledge of study designs. Participants must bring a laptop.