Webinar: Jack Wilkinson - Too good to be true? Spotting problematic trials in systematic reviews

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Systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) aim to include all eligible studies in evidence synthesis. Unfortunately, it is now clear that many systematic reviews contain so-called problematic studies. A study could be problematic due to research misconduct (including falsification or fabrication of data) or otherwise due to critical errors. Regardless of the reason for the problems, it is important to identify and remove these studies from systematic reviews to prevent them from influencing healthcare decisions. The INSPECT-SR (INveStigating ProblEmatic Clinical Trials in Systematic Reviews) tool has been developed for the purpose of assessing trustworthiness of RCTs in order to identify problematic trials. This interactive webinar will introduce the INSPECT-SR tool by way of application to a published clinical trial. Participants will have the opportunity to use INSPECT-SR to perform trustworthiness checks themselves and will learn how the tool can be incorporated when undertaking a systematic review.

Speaker:

Jack Wilkinson is a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Trials at University of Manchester. His research interests include clinical trials and evidence synthesis, and he is Statistical Editor for Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility. He has extensive experience in the conduct of integrity investigations for journals and publishers, and he leads the INSPECT-SR project, which developed a tool for the assessment of trial trustworthiness.