Accelerated systematic reviews
Accelerated systematic reviews - same robust methodology in a fraction of the time
Systematic reviews are considered the highest-level evidence to underpin clinical decisions, guidelines, and policy decisions because they synthesise all of the existing evidence that answers a specific question, using methods that are transparent, robust and reproducible.
Systematic reviews include the following steps:
- Preparation: formulate the question to be answered, write protocol.
- Retrieval of evidence: design search strategies, run the searches, retrieve results.
- Appraisal of evidence: screen the evidence for relevance to the question, include only the pertinent evidence, assess its quality (risk of bias).
- Synthesis of the evidence: extract from relevant studies the information that answers the question, pool (meta-analyse) the evidence.
- Report: write up the results of the systematic review.
As a team, we offer expertise in all areas of systematic reviews, including:
- development of methodology for conducting systematic reviews faster e.g. 2 week systematic review (2weekSR);
- development of methodology for conducting systematic reviews, including quality assessment tools and reporting standards (e.g. GRADE, CONSORT, STARD, AMSTAR, etc.);
- development of Systematic Review Automation tools to accelerate the process of conducting a systematic review (MethodsWizard, Search Refinery, Polyglot Search Translator, etc.);
- methodological advice and coaching on your team's systematic reviews;
- preparing protocols, and conducting systematic reviews for a wide range of bodies (e.g. NHMRC, MSAC, PBAC, GIN, WHO, Cochrane, Department of Health);
- preparing and reviewing clinical practice guidelines for a variety of agencies both domestically and internationally (e.g. NHMRC, AHRQ, NICE).
Case studies
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2 week Systematic Reviews (2weekSR)
Systematic reviews (SRs) are time and resource-intensive to produce, taking on average 45 weeks to complete, and typically requiring five or more personnel. The team at the Institute have developed and validated an award-winning process for decreasing the time to produce a review to approximately 2 weeks. This is achieved by integrating the use of automation tools, complementary experise, and agile project management methodology, whilst retaining high quality and robustness of the processes.
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Systematic review for the World Health Organisation
In 2016, our team was commissioned by the WHO to conduct a systematic review of evidence of the impact of the use of antimicrobials in food animals, on both food animals and humans. This systematic review of evidence involved: scoping of the review, preparing the systematic review protocol, coordinating with the WHO to reach consensus on the proposed methodology, conducting literature searches, screening of the identified literature, extracting data, appraising evidence quality, evidence synthesis, preparing the final report documenting the processes and findings, and two presentations of findings at the WHO meeting in October 2016. This systematic review underpinned the resulting guidelines, “WHO guideline on use of medically important antimicrobials in food-producing animals,” which was published in November 2017. (WHO guidelines on use of medically important antimicrobials in food-producing animals. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2017
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Cochrane systematic reviews
Cochrane reviews are internationally recognised as the gold standard for high quality information about healthcare. In the past 3 years, staff have collectively authored nearly 100 Cochrane protocols and subsequent systematic reviews and overviews of reviews. These have included reviews such as antibiotics for acute otitis media and antibiotics for acute pharyngitis which have both led to important changes to guidelines worldwide.
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National Heart Foundation (NHF) hypertension evidence evaluation
In 2015-16 our team was contracted by the NHF to evaluate evidence relating to the diagnosis, monitoring and management of hypertension in adults. We conducted this evidence evaluation, which comprised the identification and appraisal of systematic reviews and primary studies relating to 8 clinical questions. This evaluation underpinned the development of the NHF Guideline for the diagnosis and management of hypertension in adults, published in 2016.