Health care decisions should be based on a synthesis of the global body of evidence rather than relying on the convenient selection of one or more discrete studies. Evidence synthesis methods seek to establish the overall balance of information on a given topic, and are based on identifying, assessing and examining all the available evidence on a given topic to inform health care decisions.
Evidence Synthesis Ireland (ESI) is an all-Ireland initiative funded by the Health Research Board (HRB) and the Health and Social Care, Research and Development (HSC R&D) Division of the Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland. We are building evidence synthesis knowledge, awareness and capacity among the public, health care institutions and policymakers, clinicians, and researchers on the island of Ireland.
ESI includes Cochrane Ireland, whose mission is to promote evidence-informed health decision-making by producing high-quality, relevant, accessible systematic reviews and other synthesized research evidence.
From our roots in Ireland, where we work hard to enhance the usability of evidence syntheses, we aim to extend our reach and influence. Our mission is to make evidence syntheses more usable in every sense of the word – better designed, conducted and reported, more useable for decision makers and more usable within health care policy and clinical practice decision making across the Island of Ireland and beyond.
Building on this foundation, our vision is to be a global leader in evidence synthesis, setting the gold standard for capacity building and driving informed healthcare policy and clinical practice decisions worldwide.