As we come to the end of another year, the ESI team have been busy planning an exciting schedule for 2024. What better way to start on the 11th of January than with a webinar by ESI fan favourite, Prof. Andrew Booth… his webinar names are always eye-catching – Get Real! Ten reasons to undertake a Realist Synthesis (despite what you may have heard. Andrew’s delivery is always extremely entertaining so miss that at your peril. Towards the end of January, Prof. Pauline Meskell and Dr Linda Biesty, the QES stream leads for ESI, are hosting the first workshop of a four-part online QES Companion Series that is designed to be a companion to anyone who is beginning their QES journey. The workshops will take place four times throughout the first half of the year and is designed to accompany our QES explorers on their journey. At the end of January, Prof. Declan Devane, ESI Director, Dr Julie Broderick and Ciara Gleeson will be delivering our online Introduction to Systematic Reviews, one of our most popular workshops.
The second QES Companion Series workshop takes place on the 13th of February and this is followed at the end of the month by one of our regular ESI contributors, Dr Heather Munthe-Kaas and her webinar on Cochrane Qualitative Methodological Limitations Tool with the slick acronym CAMELOT. At the beginning of March (5th), we have a half-day online workshop that is generating a lot of curiosity, ROBINS-I (or Risk of Bias in Non-randomised Studies of Interventions) and this is being delivered by Leslie Choi and Dr Kerry Dwan (whom some of you will know from our previous ESI webinars). For anyone who wants an understanding of ROBINS-I, this is for you. We’ve noted there’s been a lot of interest in Rapid Reviews among the Evidence Synthesis community so we were very happy when Dr Chantelle Garritty, Dr Barbara Nussbaumer-Streit, Dr Candyce Hamel, Dr Ursula Griebler and Irma Klerings agreed to deliver a half-day online workshop on the 20th March on Accelerating Evidence Synthesis: an introduction to Rapids Reviews following the Cochrane Reviews Methods Guidance. Our March webinar is on the 21st and is being delivered by Dr Lesley Uttley. It’s an interesting and topical one for people engaged in Living Reviews… The problems with Systematic Reviews: updates on a Living Systematic Review. March closes out with our third workshop in the QES Companion Series on the 26th.
Coming into April, a workshop we are all happy about as it’s been held online numerous times over the last few years but… finally, GRADE is coming to Galway! Dr Nuala Livingstone, Philipp Kapp and our very own ESI Senior Methodologist, Dr K.M. Saif-Ur-Rahman will be hosting this workshop on the 18th and 19th of April at the University of Galway. It should be a lot of fun. Towards the end of April (23rd), we have the final workshop of the four-part QES Companion Series… the attendees will have gone through a QES journey so I’m sure Linda and Pauline will be popping the champagne as the attendees conclude their journey. Our last workshop in April is on the 29th and is focused on Diagnostic Test Accuracy. Dr Jac Dinnes will host a two-hour online session on an Introduction to Systematic Reviews of Diagnostic Test Accuracy. One for those out there who want to learn more about DTA reviews.
As we come towards the end of the 2024 academic year, on the 16th of May Dr Katy Sutcliffe will be delivering a webinar on Integrating the findings of a Qualitative Evidence Synthesis with the findings of a systematic review of effectiveness (trying to say that three times in a row). And on the 21st of June, we have the return of Julie Glanville to Dublin for Designing Systematic Searches: an Introductory Workshop. Julie held this workshop previously and to say the feedback was brilliant is an understatement.
We like to keep our ESI audience riveted, so keep an eye on our calendar over the next few weeks. Let’s just say we have one or two more surprises to be added to it in the next few weeks! As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us at esi@universityofgalway.ie if you have any questions.
Dr Tom Conway
