Fundamentals of Evidence Synthesis (PhD & MSc students)

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  

• Formulating a research question 
• Developing and registering a protocol  
• Developing and running a comprehensive search strategy 
• Screening citations  
• Data extraction 
• Data synthesis 
• Critical appraisal 
• Certainty of evidence  
• Qualitative evidence synthesis (QES) 
• Report writing 

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