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.
november 2025
To register, CLICK HERE Health technology assessment (HTA) is a multidisciplinary process to determine the value of a health technology to inform decision-making. A HTA comprises
To register, CLICK HERE
Health technology assessment (HTA) is a multidisciplinary process to determine the value of a health technology to inform decision-making. A HTA comprises several domains, including clinical effectiveness, epidemiology and economic evaluation, each of which relies on evidence synthesis. When we think of evidence synthesis, we often picture systematic reviews and a formal, well-structured process for gathering and evaluating information. The need to provide a range of timely evidence syntheses on a single topic often requires reliance on data across the spectrum in terms of quality, quantity, and applicability. In this webinar we will discuss some of the challenges in evidence synthesis when the best available evidence may not answer all the questions. Given that a decision maker cannot usually wait for further high quality studies, we will highlight some of the approaches to ensuring that the evidence is presented to address decision uncertainty.
Speakers:
Laura Rouncivell is a Health Services Researcher in HIQA’s HTA Directorate. She has a background in public health and epidemiology, with her postgraduate research focused on evidence synthesis in HIV and women’s health. Prior to joining HIQA, she worked in health system strengthening in South Africa and later in market access consultancy in Ireland, where she developed health technology assessments of pharmaceutical drugs. Laura has a particular interest in systematic review and meta-analysis.
Conor Teljeur is Chief Scientist in HIQA’s Health Technology Assessment Directorate. He has worked in HTA since 2010, working across all domains including developing numerous economic models. He also contributed to several European methodological guidelines. Before HIQA, he worked for 12 years as a health services researcher in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care in Trinity College Dublin, with a particular interest in deprivation and spatial analysis.

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(Thursday) 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
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, on policy and practice relevant reviews.
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. “