Making more of
Evidence Syntheses

To register, click here

In this webinar, Annie and Alecia will describe how they designed, recruited and supported a consumer / lived experience engagement approach for the Living Evidence for Australian Pregnancy and Postnatal care (LEAPP) guidelines. Together they operationalized what ‘diversity’ meant for these guidelines, and selected a 16-member Consumer Panel with a diversity of pregnancy and postnatal experiences, consumer representative experience and that reflects key demographic groups relevant to the guidelines. They will describe the practical steps they took to reduce the barriers to participation and create an inclusive and impactful consumer engagement approach.

Dr Annie Synnot is a Senior Research Fellow at Monash University, and the Consumer Engagement Lead for the Australian Living Evidence Collaboration and the Living Evidence for Australian Pregnancy and Postnatal care (LEAPP) guidelines. She researchers how consumers / people with lived experience can be partners in the production, dissemination and use of evidence, particularly living guidelines.

Alecia Staines founded Australia’s leading maternity consumer organisation, Maternity Consumer Network. She is involved with policy development at State and National level including national maternity strategy, Rural Maternity Taskforce, Queensland Birth Strategy, Medicare for Midwives and Publicly Funded Homebirth. She mentors other consumers to engage with their local maternity services and politicians to achieve access to better maternity services and achieve woman-centred care. She has 6 children she has birthed in a range of settings; hospital, birth centre and home.

Methods for qualitative evidence synthesis (QES) are now well established and decision makers are able to access rigorous QES on issues such as patient experiences of health conditions and interventions, and contextual factors influencing intervention implementation. QES often generate theories and explanations about why and how interventions work or do not work as anticipated. By integrating these theories with evidence on intervention effects in a mixed methods synthesis, review teams can offer vital information to support implementation of review findings in practice. However, the diversity of approaches for integrating QES and effectiveness syntheses can make it challenging for reviewers to understand how best to integrate.

This two day interactive workshop delivered by co-convenors of the Cochrane Qualitative and Implementation Methods Group will introduce theory and practical examples of mixed methods synthesis. During group work participants will be encouraged to think reflectively on the strengths and limitations of diverse approaches. Each day will conclude with an open forum to reflect on the day’s activities and discuss issues relating to participants’ own review activity

By the end of this workshop participants will:

• understand why and when it is useful to do a mixed methods synthesis
• be able to recognise and appraise diverse approaches and tools for mixed methods synthesis
• describe challenges, and potential opportunities, for mixed methods synthesis
• have gained hands on experience of integrating different types of evidence
• apply lessons learnt to their own review activity

Dates: 25th & 26th September

Time: 09:30 – 17:00

Places: 25 available for individuals who are resident in Ireland & Northern Ireland

Pre-requisites: Prior experience of systematic reviews but not necessarily specific experience of qualitative evidence synthesis or mixed methods synthesis

Location: Galway Bay Hotel, Salthill, Co. Galway

Prices: General €250; Student €140

Target Audience: Systematic review authors, guideline developers, health and social care professionals, academics, researchers, postgraduate students, decision makers, Evidence Synthesis Ireland Fellows and other professionals

Facilitators:

Prof. Angela Harden, Professor of Health Sciences, School of Health and Psychological Sciences, Department of Health Services Research and Management, City University of London

Dr. Katy Sutcliffe, Associate Professor, Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Coordination Centre (EPPI Centre), University College London

Prof. James Thomas, Professor of Social Research & Policy, Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Coordination Centre (EPPI Centre), UCL Social Research Unit, University College London

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: 7th, 8th, 14th, 15th October 2024

Time: 10.00 am – 1.00 pm

Places: 20 places available for individuals who are resident on the island of Ireland

Fee: €150 General & €80 Student

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:

• Understand how to identify, extract and analyse dichotomous and continuous data
• Understand more complex meta-analysis methods including use of Generic Inverse Variance Meta-analysis
• Understand principles of analysis of multi-arm trials, cluster and cross-over trial designs

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, University College Dublin

Dr Nuala Livingstone, Senior Quality Assurance Editor, Cochrane Editorial & Methods Department

Course content

• Data Collection overview
• Dichotomous Data: Extraction and Analysis
• Continuous Data: Extraction and Analysis
• Standardised Mean Difference
• Introduction to Heterogeneity – heterogeneity statistics, fixed and random effects models, dealing with heterogeneity
• Sensitivity Analysis
• Generic Inverse Variance Meta-analysis: overview
• Multiplicity Issues: Multi-arm trials, Cluster and Cross-over designs
• Practical demonstration in RevMan

*If your type of ticket is sold out, please join the waitlist or contact us at esi@universityofgalway.ie

To register, click here

PRO EDI is an initiative led by Trial Forge, Evidence Synthesis Ireland and the Campbell Collaboration to try and make it easier for those doing systematic reviews, especially ones including randomised trials, to explicitly consider equity, diversity and inclusion in their reviews.  The initiative benefits from an international advisory group to help us make PRO EDI relevant to all reviews, wherever the reviewers may be based in the world, and whatever the topic of the review. In this webinar the development of the PRO EDI tool will be described and the tool itself introduced.

Speakers:

Prof. Shaun Treweek is a health services researcher interested in efficient trial design, particularly around inclusive recruitment and retention and the effective presentation of research evidence. He led the development of the NIHR INCLUDE Ethnicity Framework, a tool to help trialists design inclusive trials, PRO EDI, a tool to help systematic reviewers consider equity in their reviews, and PRECIS-2, a tool to match trial design decisions to what the users of the results need. He leads an initiative called Trial Forge (http://www.trialforge.org) that aims to be more systematic about how we identify, generate and use research evidence in making trial design, conduct, analysis and reporting decisions.  Finally, Shaun is an Editor-in-Chief of the journal Trials.

Clarinda Cerejo is a EUPATI-certified Patient Expert and a Stanford-certified Design Thinker. She serves as an India Ambassador for The Sumaira Foundation, a Board Member of the Global Patient Advocacy Coalition, and a Management Committee of the Rare Disease Research Network. She consults various organizations, including the World Health Organization, on patient/stakeholder outreach and engagement. As a Patient Contributor to the Pro-EDI project, Clarinda draws on her lived experience with a rare disease and various comorbidities, her professional background in science communication, and her geographic vantage point living in India to offer a well-rounded perspective. She cares deeply about patient engagement and co-hosts the podcast “Not Just Patients,” through which she aims to amplify the patient voice and break barriers to meaningful patient involvement in healthcare. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clarinda-cerejo/

Ioanna Gkertso is a medical student entering her fourth year at King’s College London. She recently completed an intercalated BSc degree in Primary Care and Basic Medical Science, graduating with first-class honors. Throughout her academic journey, Ioanna has shown a strong commitment to both her studies and community. She received a King’s Mentoring Award in recognition of her efforts as a mentor. Over the years, she has devoted her time to guiding aspiring medical students, working with various charities to increase access to medical education. Her passion for medical research is evident through her involvement with the Aortic Dissection Charity, where she serves on the Research Advisory Board. Looking ahead, Ioanna aims to integrate her interests in primary care and medical research, aspiring to make a significant impact on patient care and medical education.