Evidence Synthesis Ireland, Cochrane Ireland and the HRB Trials Methodology Research Network have refocused their collective resources on prioritised COVID-19 activities to support healthcare policy and practice decision making in Ireland and beyond. The group, called the Emergency Evidence Response Service, is working in collaboration with the NUI Galway Library and colleagues throughout the University (including the Health Behaviour Change Research Group) and broader research community, and are working quickly and flexibly on prioritised questions from the World Health Organisation (WHO), Cochrane, Campbell UK & Ireland, governments, EPPI-Centre (London), the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine (CEBM, Oxford) and others.
The methodological expertise in the group includes evidence synthesis across qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods and meta-analysis, randomised controlled trials, trial methodology, core outcome set development and outcome reporting, prioritisation, psychology, behaviour science, behaviour change, implementation science, open science, information searching, communication and dissemination.
This work was made possible by support from our funders: the Health Research Board and the Health and Social Care, Research and Development (HSC R&D) Division of the Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland.
EERS members are Claire Beecher, Linda Biesty, Nikita Burke, Dympna Casey, Tom Conway, Yvonne Conway, Hannah Delaney, Declan Devane, Elaine Finucane, Sandra Galvin, Vivienne Hanrahan, Catherine Houghton, Fionnuala Jordan, Ciara Keenan, Chris Noone, Jenny Mc Sharry, Eimear Morrissey, Mike Smalle, Valerie Smith, Elaine Toomey, Fiona Quirke
In August, Evidence Synthesis Ireland was asked by the Health Research Board to provide urgent evidence support to the Department of Health’s Expert Advisory Group on Rapid Testing for COVID-19.
We recruited and placed a Research Fellow, Dr Barbara Whelan (0.8 FTE), who will be providing research support to the Rapid Testing Expert Advisory Group.
We are also supporting a researcher (0.2 FTE) from the Economic and Social Research Institute to work on the following synthesis question:
Prof Jon Deeks and Dr Jac Dinnes of the University of Birmingham will provide consultancy to the Rapid Testing Expert Advisory Group on rapid testing and in particular diagnostic test accuracy, as well as mentoring three ESI Fellows. Working with Royal College of Physicians of Ireland leads, we recruited and placed 2 experienced Specialist Registrars in Infectious Diseases and 1 in Microbiology.
The Fellows will be working on:
We have also commissioned three rapid, living systematic reviews for the Expert Group, which will be carried out by colleagues in Canada.
We placed two additional Specialist Registrars in Infectious Diseases as ESI Fellows on these three reviews. These ESI Fellows will be at the coal-face of evolving evidence and will feed that back to the Expert Group as well as contributing their clinical expertise to an evidence base that will likely inform practices internationally.
Publications
. Development of a risk assessment profile tool to determine appropriate use of SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen detection tests for different activities and events in Ireland, since October 2021. Euro Surveill. 2022;27(3):pii=2101202. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.3.2101202
COVID-19 Living Rapid Review Rapid Antigen Testing, Andrew Beck, Nicole Shaver, Alexandria Bennett, Gabrielle Zitiktye, Niyati Vyas,Barbara Whelan,Rhea O’Regan, Aileen Conway, Becky Skidmore,David Moher and Julian Little. Open Science Framework
Cochrane Ireland is a co-convenor of the Cochrane Rapid Reviews Methods Group. Read more here
Burke et al, COVID-19 Emergency Evidence Response Service: report from Ireland (Dec 2020). Read here
Garritty…Devane…et al, Rapid review methods guidance aids in Cochrane’s quick response to the COVID-19 crisis. Read here
Boutron…Devane.. et al, COVID-NMA: a collaborative COVID-19 living evidence project. Read here
In: Collaborating in response to COVID-19: editorial and methods initiatives across Cochrane Click here for the full report
Biesty et al 2020, Process paper in Systematic Reviews (Nov 2020)
Tricco…, Houghton, Devane et al commentary (June 2020)
Devane, mini-commentary: Minimising duplicate reports in estimating COVID-19 impact (July 2020)
Haddaway…Keenan et al, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology (July 2020)
Gillies…Keenan, Conway… et al, Strategies to improve retention in randomised trials – Cochrane Library (March 2021)
Houghton et al 2020, Cochrane qualitative rapid review (21 April 2020)
Fast-tracked prioritised update of a Cochrane review on PPE (Verbeek et al)
Series of rapid reviews on PPE for the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine in Oxford
Curran et al, Transmission characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (collaboration with ESI Fellow) March 2021
Ghosn…Devane…Boutron et al, Cochrane review – Interleukin‐6 blocking agents for treating COVID‐19: a living systematic review (March 2021)
Smith V et al, Cochrane Scoping Review, Care bundles for improving outcomes in patients with COVID‐19 or related conditions in intensive care – a rapid scoping review
Noone et al, Cochrane Rapid Review, Video calls for reducing social isolation and loneliness in older people 21 May 2020
Rapid review of reviews
Cochrane COVID-19 review of clinical practice guidelines for key questions relating to the care of pregnant women (and their babies) are now available here
Cochrane Special Collection – Coronavirus (COVID-19): remote care through telehealth
COVID-NMA systematic reviews (led by Prof Devane, with F Quirke et al)
