How do you decide whether a treatment works? How much evidence is needed? What is “good” evidence?
These are questions addressed by systematic reviews, which are recognised in the “hierarchy of evidence” as the best methodology for synthesising evidence in an unbiased way. Systematic reviews are used to inform clinical guidelines and health care decision making, and to prioritise research needs.
This module equips students with the skills needed to undertake a systematic review and meta-analysis using up-to-date methods. It includes guidance on planning a systematic review, literature searching, critical appraisal of different study designs, synthesis of the identified evidence and interpretation and presentation of findings. More advanced and specialist topics are also covered, such as individual participant data meta-analysis and mixed treatment comparisons, as well as methods for systematic reviews on clinical questions beyond effectiveness, such as: prognostic factors, diagnostic test accuracy, adverse events, qualitative research and cost-effectiveness.
Once again the module was well-received by our new MPH student cohort and the following comments highlight some of the best aspects of the sessions:
“Structural approach… good use of illustrative examples and exercises”
“The critical appraisal (CASP) workshop was excellent”
“The module flowed well by basing it on stages of a Systematic Review”
“Detailed and well presented handouts and thorough lectures”
“The practical sessions were very useful and thorough”
Student feedback is incredibly important in order to keep improving our modules every year and we would like to extend a big thank you to all who provided feedback for this year. Your comments have been taken into account and we will continue to work on making the SRES module as informative and engaging as possible.
Written by and further information available from Dr David Moore (d.j.moore@bham.ac.uk) and Janine Dretzke (j.dretzke@bham.ac.uk) – Module Leads
