Training and Webinars

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Investigations of transparency, reproducibility and replicability in science have been directed largely at individual studies. It is just as critical to explore these issues in systematic reviews, given their influence on decision-making and future research. In this talk, I will present data collected for the REPRISE (REProducibility and Replicability In Syntheses of Evidence) project. The objectives of the project are to evaluate in a sample of systematic reviews of interventions: (1) how frequently methods are reported completely, and how often review data and other materials are shared publicly; (2) systematic reviewers’ views on sharing review data and other materials and their understanding of and opinions about replication of reviews; (3) the extent of variation in results when we independently reproduce meta-analyses, and; (4) the extent of variation in results when we crowdsource teams to independently repeat the search, selection, data collection and analysis steps of a sample of original reviews.

Dr. Matthew Page is a Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Head of the Methods in Evidence Synthesis Unit in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University in Australia. His research aims to improve the credibility of syntheses of health and medical research. He co-led the development of the PRISMA 2020 statement for systematic reviews and was a member of the core group who developed the RoB 2 tool for assessing risk of bias in randomized trials. He is an associate scientific editor for the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. He frequently collaborates with clinicians on systematic reviews of interventions for a range of conditions, which often informs his meta-research agenda.

*Please note that Session 1 & Session 2 are identical. Please register for the session (not both) that is most suitable to your timetable.

Date: 21st April 2023

Time: 9:00am – 12:00pm

Location: The Larkin Room, Ground Floor, Postgraduate Centre, Belfast City Hospital, 51 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 7AB

Fee: Free

Skill Level: Introductory

Target Audience: Clinicians & Healthcare Workers

Background:

Health care policy and practice decisions should be based on a synthesis of the global body of evidence rather than relying on individual studies. High quality, relevant systematic reviews and other synthesised research evidence are fundamental to evidence-based healthcare policy and practice.

Aim:

This workshop introduces systematic reviews and describes why they are an important source of evidence. The focus of the workshop will be on outlining the process of designing a systematic review and the steps in conducting a systematic review.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this workshop, participants will:

• Understand what systematic reviews are and why they are important

• Be able to identify the elements of a well-defined question for a systematic review

• Understand the steps of a systematic review

Teaching Strategies:

The workshop will consist of a mixture of short presentations and question and answer sessions.

Facilitators: 

Prof. Declan Devane,

Chair in Health Research Methodology, University of Galway

Scientific Director, HRB-Trials Methodology Research Network

Director, Evidence Synthesis Ireland

Director, Cochrane Ireland

Twitter handle: @decdevane

Prof. Bronagh Blackwood

Chair in Critical Care and NI lead for ESI Queen’s University Belfast

*Please note that Session 1 & Session 2 are identical. Please register for the session (not both) that is most suitable to your timetable.

Date: 21st April 2023

Time: 13:30 – 16:30

Location: Royal Victoria Hospital, Institute of Clinical Science A

Fee: Free

Skill Level: Introductory

Target Audience: Clinicians & Healthcare Workers

Background:

Health care policy and practice decisions should be based on a synthesis of the global body of evidence rather than relying on individual studies. High quality, relevant systematic reviews and other synthesised research evidence are fundamental to evidence-based healthcare policy and practice.

Aim:

This workshop introduces systematic reviews and describes why they are an important source of evidence. The focus of the workshop will be on outlining the process of designing a systematic review and the steps in conducting a systematic review.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this workshop, participants will:

• Understand what systematic reviews are and why they are important

• Be able to identify the elements of a well-defined question for a systematic review

• Understand the steps of a systematic review

Teaching Strategies:

The workshop will consist of a mixture of short presentations and question and answer sessions.

Facilitators: 

Prof. Declan Devane,

Chair in Health Research Methodology, University of Galway

Scientific Director, HRB-Trials Methodology Research Network

Director, Evidence Synthesis Ireland

Director, Cochrane Ireland

Twitter handle: @decdevane

Prof. Bronagh Blackwood

Chair in Critical Care and NI lead for ESI Queen’s University Belfast

Background

For any given condition there may be a number of alternative treatment options. Network meta-analysis is an extension of pairwise meta-analysis that allows the simultaneous synthesis of data from networks of interventions. By combining direct and indirect information, network meta-analysis can inform every possible treatment comparison, even those for which no head-to-head comparisons exist.

Aim

This course will focus on the role of network meta-analyses in comparative effectiveness research for healthcare interventions.

Objectives:

The objective of this course is to examine the full process of a network meta-analysis from the planning stage and the preparation of the protocol up to the final report and publication of the manuscript. Day 3 will focus on practical sessions in R and some more advanced topics of network meta-analysis.

Learning outcomes

In this course participants will be enabled to:

• Understand the concept and the main principles of network meta-analysis
• Write a protocol for a network meta-analysis
• Understand and evaluate the assumptions of a network meta-analysis
• Interpret the results of a network meta-analysis
• Identify the limitations and potential sources of bias within a network of interventions
• Critically appraise the results from a network meta-analysis
• Synthesize the data from a network of interventions (Day 3 only)
• Create visualizations and prepare the final report (Day 3 only)

Dates: 26th, 27th & 28th April 2023

Time: 09:30 – 16:30

Location: The River Room, University of Galway

Places: 28 available to those resident in Ireland & Northern Ireland & limited places are also available for individuals outside of Ireland.

Skill Level: Intermediate for Days 1-2, Advanced for Day 3

Prices

€250 – Student

€500 – Regular

€650 – Industry

Target Audience

Healthcare professionals, academics, researchers, decision makers, librarians, information specialists, and Evidence Synthesis Ireland fellows and teaching faculty who meet the below prerequisites and would like to learn more about network meta-analysis.

Prerequisites

Participants must have a solid understanding of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and a basic knowledge of statistics including pair wise mete analysis. The program assumes this knowledge as these prerequisites do not form part of the program content. Experience with R is necessary for any participants attending Day 3.

Teaching Strategies

The workshop will consist of a mixture of lectures and interactive sessions. Day 3 will include practical sessions in R.

Facilitators:

Dr Anna Chaimani, Senior Research Scientist, Université Paris Cité, Inserm, @AChaimani, https://www.cer-methods.com/

Dr Theodoros Evrenoglou, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Université Paris Cité, Inserm, Twitter @TEvrenoglou, https://www.cer-methods.com/

*If your type of ticket is sold out, please join the waitlist or contact us at esi@nuigalway.ie

Date: 11th May 2023

Time: 10:00am – 12:00pm

Location: CA0005, Aras Cairnes, University of Galway

Fee: General Admission €30 / Student €15

Places: 25 available for individuals who are resident in Ireland & Northern Ireland

Skill Level: Introductory

Target Audience: Healthcare professionals, academics, researchers, decision makers, librarians, information specialists, and Evidence Synthesis Ireland fellows and teaching faculty who would like to learn more about the conduct of scoping reviews.

Pre-requisites: This course is for any health researcher, clinician, manager, policy maker who want to better conduct or evaluate scoping reviews. Skills related to other forms of knowledge syntheses (e.g., systematic reviews, realist reviews) is helpful for participants to have, but not a necessary requirement for the course. Participants must be familiar with the concept of knowledge syntheses and come to the course with a general understanding of the concept of a scoping review. 

Background:

Estimates for the generation of research evidence suggest that there is an increasing number of trials and systematic reviews published daily.  Knowledge syntheses are essential to advance practice and research through consolidation of evidence. Such reviews can also help knowledge users work more efficiently to make evidence-based decisions. Among the various types of knowledge synthesis, the scoping review has become increasingly popular. Scoping reviews are a form of knowledge synthesis that incorporate a range of study designs to comprehensively summarize and synthesize evidence with the aim of informing practice, programs and policy and providing direction to future research priorities.  As a method of knowledge synthesis, scoping reviews have potential to advance health care practice, policy and research. However, variability on the methodological conduct and reporting of scoping reviews prevents scoping reviews from fully reaching this potential.  In this course, we will focus on best practices for the conduct of scoping reviews. 

Aim:

Advance introductory knowledge on the conduct of scoping reviews  

Learning Outcomes:

In this course participants will be enabled to:

• Understand steps and best practices for the conduct of scoping reviews. 

• Distinguish between scoping reviews and other forms of knowledge syntheses. 

• Understand methods resources for scoping reviews. 

• Develop methodological skills in the conduct of scoping reviews.  
• Recognize scoping reviews of varying quality/critique a scoping review 

Teaching Strategies:

The workshop will consist of a mixture of short presentations, small group work and large group discussions.

Facilitators: 

Dr Heather Colquhoun is an Associate Professor in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of Toronto. She is an occupational therapist, an implementation scientist and a scoping review enthusiast. Heather is an author on 9 scoping review methods papers and has participated in the development and publication of numerous scoping review protocols and papers. These projects have been completed with at least 200 different team members. She has recently been conducting a scoping review that is patient partner initiated and co-led. 

Dr Andrea C. Tricco is a Scientist and Director of the Knowledge Synthesis Team in the Knowledge Translation Program, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health & Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation. She is also a Co-Director & Adjunct Associate Professor for the Queen’s Collaboration for Health Care Quality Joanna Briggs Institute Centre of Excellence at Queen’s University. Her research program focuses on advancing the science of knowledge synthesis and responding to information needs of decision-makers. 

*If your type of ticket is sold out, please join the waitlist or contact us at esi@nuigalway.ie

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How to extract, analyse and present data in scoping reviews can be challenging. This webinar will explore where and how you should extract the data from multiple evidence sources, the best approach in analyzing your collected data-including how to manage qualitative data, and novel ways to present your findings.

Dr Danielle Pollock is a Research Fellow within the Evidence-based Healthcare Research team at JBI, University of Adelaide. She is actively involved in the JBI Scoping Review methodology group, and the coordinator of the JBI Scoping Review Network. Danielle is passionate about taking the guess work out of how to do evidence synthesis.

Date: 25th, 26th, 30th & 31st May 2023

Time: 14:00 – 16:00 (IST)

Places: 30 available for individuals who are resident in Ireland & Northern Ireland

Skill level: Introductory

Target Audience:

Healthcare professionals, academics, researchers, decision makers, librarians, information specialists, and Evidence Synthesis Ireland fellows and teaching faculty who would like to learn more about using a GRADE-CERQual approach in qualitative evidence synthesis.

Prerequisites: 

Have a basic knowledge of qualitative evidence synthesis. Are interested in learning more on the GRADE-CERQual approach.

Teaching strategies

During each day of the workshop, facilitators will give a short introduction on the topic of the day. Workshop participants will then carry out an exercise related to this topic, followed by a session where the topic and exercise are discussed.

Tickets: €160 General; €60 Student

Facilitators

Dr Linda Biesty, School of Nursing and Midwifery, NUI Galway.

Dr Pauline Meskell, Department of Nursing & Midwifery, EHS Faculty, University of Limerick.

Dr Simon Lewin and Dr Claire Glenton, Cochrane Norway/EPOC, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, GRADE-CERQual Project Group.

Dr Heather Munthe-Kass, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, GRADE-CERQual Project Group.

*If your type of ticket is sold out, please join the waitlist or contact us at esi@nuigalway.ie

Date: 26th May 2023

Time: 10:00am – 2:30pm

Location: Durkan Theatre, Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, Trinity Centre for Health Sciences, St. James’s Hospital, Dublin 8.

Fee: General Admission €40 / Student €20

Places: 30 available for individuals who are resident in Ireland & Northern Ireland

Skill Level: Introductory

Target Audience: Health economists, those involved in synthesis of clinical evidence and the wider research community (including healthcare professionals, academics, researchers, and decision–makers) interested in the application of health economic methodologies to inform practice and policy. 

Background:

Health economics methods are employed to provide evidence on the cost effectiveness and budget impact of health technologies and health and social care interventions. This evidence forms part of the multidisciplinary health technology assessment (HTA) process in Ireland and internationally, which is central to informing resource allocation decision-making by policy makers and practitioners within and across health systems. Moreover, given the growth in applied health economic evaluation studies internationally, evidence synthesis methods are increasingly employed to critically appraise and synthesise the health economic evidence base.  To this end, there exists a need to educate relevant stakeholders on the conduct of evidence synthesis in the context of health economic evaluation.  

Aim:

This workshop aims to firstly, provide an introduction to the methods of health economic evaluation, and secondly, to provide guidance on the conduct of systematic reviews of health economic evaluation studies.

Objectives:  

The objective of this workshop is to equip participants with the knowledge and tools to conduct a systematic review of health economic evaluation evidence.

Learning Outcomes:

In this course participants will be enabled to:

• Understand the principles and steps of the methods of health economic evaluation  

• Understand the principles and steps in conducting a systematic review of health economic evaluation evidence 

Teaching Strategies:

The workshop will consist of a mixture of presentations and participant feedback sessions. 

Facilitators: 

Paddy Gillespie, Professor of Health Economics, Health Economics and Policy Analysis Centre (HEPAC), University of Galway 

Paul Carty, Senior Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Analyst, Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) 

*If your type of ticket is sold out, please join the waitlist or contact us at esi@nuigalway.ie

Background

One of the key features of all evidence synthesis is to conduct a systematic search. Systematic literature searching requires that we plan and run searches in a way that ensures clarity, validity and reliability. Documenting the searching process is vital to ensure transparency and reproducibility.

Aim

This workshop provides attendees with the knowledge and skills to conduct a basic systematic search of the literature including designing and running searches on key databases and identifying and selecting search filters.

Learning outcomes

In this course, participants will be enabled to:

• Design a basic systematic search strategy
• Identify and use study-design search filters
• Report the search methods

Dates: 13th June 2023

Time: 09:00 – 16:00

Location: Ashling Hotel, Stoneybatter, Dublin 8

Places: 30 available for individuals who are resident in Ireland & Northern Ireland

Skill Level: Introductory

Target Audience

Healthcare professionals, academics, researchers, decision makers, librarians, information specialists, and Evidence Synthesis Ireland fellows and teaching faculty who would like to learn more about systematic searching.

Teaching Strategies

The workshop will consist of a mixture of short presentations and small group activities with practical exercises. Please bring along your PC for the exercises. Questions and discussion are encouraged. A short reading list/activity list will be sent to enrolled attendees in advance of the session.

Facilitator

Julie Glanville, an independent consultant and trainer in information retrieval. Julie has worked in systematic reviews for more than 25 years as Associate Director of York Health Economics Consortium (YHEC) (2008-2019) and Associate Director at the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD), University of York (1994 – 2008). Julie was a co-convenor of the Cochrane Information Retrieval Methods Group and is a co-author of the Cochrane Handbook chapter on searching for evidence and the 2020 PRISMA guidance.

*If your type of ticket is sold out, please join the waitlist or contact us at esi@nuigalway.ie

To register, click here

This webinar will present the Synthesis Without Meta-analysis (SWiM) reporting guideline which aims to help transparent reporting of synthesis of intervention effects sizes when the synthesis does not use meta-analysis. The guidance was funded by the Cochrane Strategic Methods Fund and provides nine reporting items to promote transparent reporting of how studies are grouped, synthesis methods used, how data are presented, and summary of the synthesis findings.

Ms Mhairi Campbell is a systematic reviewer at the Social and Public Health Sciences Unit at the University of Glasgow. Mhairi has broad experience of conducting complex systematic reviews, including qualitative evidence of policy interventions, review of theories, and research investigating narrative synthesis methods in public health systematic reviews. Mhairi was lead researcher and co-investigator on the SWiM guideline project.

This workshop will be held over four mornings and provides authors, at the beginning of the systematic review process, with an in-depth understanding of how reviews are planned and conducted. It offers an insight to the development of a protocol, introducing participants to methodology, search methods, data extraction, risk of bias assessment and meta-analysis.

Date: 2nd, 3rd, 9th & 10th October 2023

Time: 10.00 am – 1.00 /1:30 pm

Places: 25 available for individuals who are resident on the island of Ireland

Fee: General €150; Student €80

Skill level: Introductory

Target Audience: Healthcare professionals, academics, researchers, decision makers and Evidence Synthesis Ireland fellows who have identified a review topic and are ready to begin working on their protocol.

Prerequisites: Have a basic knowledge of health research. Are interested in learning more on the methods of a systematic review.

Teaching strategies: The workshop will consist of a mixture of short presentations, led by members of the Cochrane Ireland teaching faculty covering each of the stages of developing a systematic review protocol, small group activities and plenary discussions, providing participants with the opportunity to develop and refine their protocol. This course will include blended learning with two months free access to Cochrane Interactive Learning self-directed learning modules, a number of which will be required study prior to the workshop.

Facilitators

Prof. Anne Matthews, Full Professor of Nursing, School of Nursing, Psychotherapy & Community Health, Dublin City University

Ciara Gleeson, Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist, Respiratory Assessment Unit, St. James’s Hospital, Dublin

*If your type of ticket is sold out, please join the waitlist or contact us at esi@nuigalway.ie

This workshop  will be held over four mornings and provides authors, actively involved in conducting a systematic review, with confidence to assess a wide range of data types. It offers an insight into more complex methods of meta-analysis. This workshop also includes an overview on how to produce a summary of findings table for use in your review.

Date: 20th, 21st, 27th, 28th November 2023

Time: 10.00 am – 1.00 pm

Places: 20 places available for individuals who are resident on the island of Ireland

Target audience

Healthcare professionals, academics, researchers, decision makers and Evidence Synthesis Ireland fellows who are actively involved in performing a Cochrane systematic review.

Prerequisites

Participants should at least have completed their review protocol, developed and conducted their search strategy and begun data extraction and analysis.

Background

Health care policy and practice decisions should be based on a synthesis of the global body of evidence rather than relying on individual studies. Cochrane Ireland and Evidence Synthesis Ireland promote evidence based healthcare policy and practice by supporting high quality, relevant systematic reviews and other synthesised research evidence.

Aim

This workshop provides authors, actively involved in conducting a systematic review, with confidence to assess a wide range of data types. It offers an insight into more complex methods of meta-analysis.

Learning outcomes

In this course participants will be enabled to:

• Understand how to identify, extract and analyse dichotomous and continuous data
• Understand more complex meta-analysis methods including use of Generic Inverse Variance Meta-analysis
• Understand principles of analysis of multi-arm trials, cluster and cross-over trial designs

Teaching strategies

This course consists of online workshops with of a mixture of short presentations, small group activities and practical demonstrations using Cochrane software (RevMan 5.4.1). In addition, participants will have access to Cochrane Interactive Learning modules and will be required to complete a set of modules prior to workshops. Access to the Cochrane Interactive Learning modules will be made available for4 weeks before and 4 weeks after the workshop and will be free of charge thanks to the support of Cochrane Training.

Facilitators

Prof. Valerie Smith, Trinity College Dublin

Dr Nuala Livingstone, Cochrane

Course content

• Data Collection overview
• Dichotomous Data: Extraction and Analysis
• Continuous Data: Extraction and Analysis
• Standardised Mean Difference
• Introduction to Heterogeneity – heterogeneity statistics, fixed and random effects models, dealing with heterogeneity
• Sensitivity Analysis
• Generic Inverse Variance Meta-analysis: overview
• Multiplicity Issues: Multi-arm trials, Cluster and Cross-over designs
• Practical demonstration in RevMan

*If your type of ticket is sold out, please join the waitlist or contact us at esi@nuigalway.ie