Evidence Synthesis Ireland (ESI), which hosts Cochrane Ireland, aims to make evidence syntheses more usable in every sense of the word – better designed, conducted and reported, more useable for decision-makers and more usable within health care policy and clinical practice decision making across the island of Ireland and beyond.
We provide education for researchers, clinicians, the public and policymakers who conduct or use evidence syntheses.
We build capacity in planning, doing and sharing evidence syntheses through Fellowships, workshops and scholarships.
We advance the way we plan, do and share the results of evidence synthesis by finding out how to do these steps better.
october 2023
This workshop will be held over four mornings and provides authors, at the beginning of the systematic review process, with an in-depth understanding of how reviews are planned and conducted.
This workshop will be held over four mornings and provides authors, at the beginning of the systematic review process, with an in-depth understanding of how reviews are planned and conducted. It offers an insight to the development of a protocol, introducing participants to methodology, search methods, data extraction, risk of bias assessment and meta-analysis.
Date: 2nd, 3rd, 9th & 10th October 2023
Time: 10.00 am – 1.00 /1:30 pm
Places: 25 available for individuals who are resident on the island of Ireland
Fee: General €150; Student €80
Skill level: Introductory
Target Audience: Healthcare professionals, academics, researchers, decision makers and Evidence Synthesis Ireland fellows who have identified a review topic and are ready to begin working on their protocol.
Prerequisites: A basic knowledge of health research. Interested in learning more on the methods of a systematic review.
Teaching strategies: The workshop will consist of a mixture of short presentations, led by members of the Cochrane Ireland & ESI teaching faculty covering each of the stages of developing a systematic review protocol, small group activities and plenary discussions, providing participants with the opportunity to develop and refine their protocol. This course will include blended learning with two months free access to Cochrane Interactive Learning self-directed modules, a number of which will be required study prior to the workshop.
Facilitators
Prof. Anne Matthews, Full Professor of Nursing, School of Nursing, Psychotherapy & Community Health, Dublin City University
Ciara Gleeson, Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist, Respiratory Assessment Unit, St. James’s Hospital, Dublin
*If your type of ticket is sold out, please join the waitlist or contact us at esi@universityofgalway.ie
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2 (Monday) 10:00 am - 10 (Tuesday) 1:00 pm UTC +1
ONLINE
Date: 11, 12 & 13 October 2023 Time: 9:00am – 12:00pm (Irish time, UTC+1) Location: Online Fee: Free Skill Level: Introductory Target Audience: PhD and MSc students on the
Date: 11, 12 & 13 October 2023
Time: 9:00am – 12:00pm (Irish time, UTC+1)
Location: Online
Fee: Free
Skill Level: Introductory
Target Audience: PhD and MSc students on the Island of Ireland.
Places: 50
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.
Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this course, participants will understand the principles of
Teaching Strategies:
The workshop will consist of a mixture of short presentations and discussion.
Facilitators:
Dr Linda Biesty, Senior lecturer at the School of Nursing & Midwifery, University of Galway
Dr K.M. Saif-Ur-Rahman, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Evidence Synthesis Ireland and Cochrane Ireland, University of Galway
Dr Paula Byrne, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Evidence Synthesis Ireland and Cochrane Ireland, University of Galway
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11 (Wednesday) 9:00 am - 13 (Friday) 12:00 pm UTC+1
ONLINE
To register, click here Evidence Synthesis Ireland, which includes Cochrane Ireland, aims to build evidence synthesis knowledge, awareness and capacity among the public, health care institutions
To register, click here
Evidence Synthesis Ireland, which includes Cochrane Ireland, aims to build evidence synthesis knowledge, awareness and capacity among the public, health care institutions and policymakers, clinicians, and researchers on the island of Ireland. We do this through: 1) Training & Education; 2) Support & Network; and 3) Research & Innovation.
Join us in this webinar as we explore the training programs, webinars and Fellowships designed to equip our audience with the essential skills for evidence synthesis. Discover the enriching experience of our Fellowships, where participants gain hands-on exposure to cutting-edge methodologies and one-to-one mentorship. Whether you are a researcher, policymaker, or practitioner, we have courses that cater to all levels of expertise, enabling you to become proficient in navigating the world of evidence synthesis. We’ll also introduce our other initiatives, such as Communicating with the Public mentorship scheme or, the Study Within A Review (SWAR) Award that you can get involved in.
We want to hear from you – so we’ll have a live Q&A session to answer your questions or hear your suggestions.
Dr. Nikita Burke is the Programme Manager for Evidence Synthesis Ireland and Associate Director for Cochrane Ireland. She is passionate about building evidence synthesis knowledge, awareness and capacity, to support the impact of evidence synthesis on decision-making. With a profound understanding of the importance of reliable research, she drives the success and quality of a world class evidence synthesis centre at the University of Galway. Nikita’s journey in evidence synthesis began with a decade in preclinical research, earning her a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Galway. Her curiosity and commitment to knowledge translation inspired her to bridge the gap between lab-based inquiry and real-world applications of research. Beyond her managerial expertise, Nikita has experience in public involvement and engagement.
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(Thursday) 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm UTC +1
ONLINE
november 2023
This workshop will be held over four mornings and provides authors, actively involved in conducting a systematic review, with confidence to assess a wide range of data types. It offers
This workshop will be held over four mornings and provides authors, actively involved in conducting a systematic review, with confidence to assess a wide range of data types. It offers an insight into more complex methods of meta-analysis. This workshop also includes an overview on how to produce a summary of findings table for use in your review.
Date: 20th, 21st, 27th, 28th November 2023 (UTC)
Time: 10.00 am – 1.00 pm
Places: 20 places available for individuals who are resident on the island of Ireland
Target audience
Healthcare professionals, academics, researchers, decision makers and Evidence Synthesis Ireland fellows who are actively involved in performing a systematic review.
Prerequisites
Participants should at least have completed their review protocol, developed and conducted their search strategy and begun data extraction and analysis.
Background
Health care policy and practice decisions should be based on a synthesis of the global body of evidence rather than relying on individual studies. Cochrane Ireland and Evidence Synthesis Ireland promote evidence based healthcare policy and practice by supporting high quality, relevant systematic reviews and other synthesised research evidence.
Aim
This workshop provides authors, actively involved in conducting a systematic review, with confidence to assess a wide range of data types. It offers an insight into more complex methods of meta-analysis.
Learning outcomes
In this course participants will be enabled to:
Teaching strategies
This course consists of online workshops with of a mixture of short presentations, small group activities and practical demonstrations using Cochrane software (RevMan 5.4.1). In addition, participants will have access to Cochrane Interactive Learning modules and will be required to complete a set of modules prior to workshops. Access to the Cochrane Interactive Learning modules will be made available for4 weeks before and 4 weeks after the workshop and will be free of charge thanks to the support of Cochrane Training.
Facilitators
Prof. Valerie Smith, Professor of Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin
Dr Nuala Livingstone, Senior Quality Assurance Editor, Cochrane Editorial & Methods Department
Course content
*If your type of ticket is sold out, please join the waitlist or contact us at esi@universityofgalway.ie
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20 (Monday) 10:00 am - 28 (Tuesday) 1:00 pm UTC
ONLINE
To register, click here Following the launch of ChatGPT, interest in large language models (LLMs) has grown significantly. Large numbers of new tools, which take advantage
To register, click here
Following the launch of ChatGPT, interest in large language models (LLMs) has grown significantly. Large numbers of new tools, which take advantage of the human-like text generation capabilities of the new ‘generative’ generation of language models, have been released, and there is widespread expectation that ‘AI’ will soon start to undertake tasks that hitherto could only be undertaken by humans. Supporting healthcare decision-making through real-time evidence synthesis is one such task, and evidence synthesis tools which utilize LLMs have begun to be deployed. However, how do LLMs actually work? And are they reliable enough to be used for real-world decision-making?
This webinar will first outline how LLMs for healthcare actually generate the answers that they give. It will then move on to consider the use cases that have been advanced for their application, and consider how suited they are for these tasks.
Prof. James Thomas is based at the EPPI Centre and his research is centred on improving policy and decision-making through more creative use and appreciation of existing knowledge. It covers substantive disciplinary fields – such as health promotion, public health and education – and also the development of tools and methods that support this work conducted both within UCL and in the wider community. He has written extensively on research synthesis, including meta-analysis and methods for combining qualitative and quantitative research in ‘mixed method’ reviews; and also designed EPPI-Reviewer, software which manages data through all stages of a systematic review.
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(Thursday) 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm UTC
ONLINE
The innovative ESI Fellowships give Fellows the opportunity to learn about evidence synthesis, with hands-on experience of how to plan, design, conduct and report an evidence synthesis. Fellows are placed virtually with world-class evidence synthesis centres and review teams in Ireland and internationally.
We’re committed to improving how we gather, interpret, and share vast amounts of information, a process known as evidence synthesis. Our approach isn’t just about conducting research; it’s about improving the very methods we use to plan, conduct, and share the results of this process.
We work in many different research areas relevant to evidence synthesis and have a particularly strong focus on rapid reviews, knowledge translation and “studies within a review” (SWARs).
“ Reporting on health care topics can rely too much on asking experts or reporting the results of a single study…what would be much more useful to members of the public, especially when it comes to making decisions about their own health, is for people to understand how to situate health claims in the global body of evidence. “