LI Course
CE Hours: 6 contact hours

Partnership: None

Statement of Purpose and Institute Overview: The purpose of this Institute is to provide participants with the skills necessary to develop a systematic review (SR). A systematic review is defined as “a scientific investigation that focuses on a specific question and that uses explicit, planned scientific methods to identify, select, assess, and summarize the findings of similar but separate studies. It may or may not include a quantitative synthesis of the results from separate studies (meta-analysis)” (Finding What Works in Health Care: Standards for Systematic Reviews, Institute of Medicine, 2011) SRs can provide evidence to support public health policymaking, program planning, and clinical decision making. This institute will focus on the initial steps of the SR process: determining the need for a systematic review, development of a question or aims, the basics of developing searches in select databases, and reporting methods and results. To determine the need for an SR, we will first differentiate between a narrative review and a systematic review and then provide criteria to determine need, e.g. lack of a prior SR or lack of a current SR. Next we will focus on formulating answerable questions (i.e. aims) and defining eligibility criteria. Participants considering an SR will have an opportunity to present their aims for consideration and comments. We will then focus on how to select databases and other resources to search. Search techniques, both general (e.g. how to combine terms using Boolean) and more specific (e.g. using controlled vocabulary) will be presented with in-class exercises to reinforce the techniques. Participants will be able to construct searches for prior reviews and develop rudimentary searches for original studies as a backdrop to meeting with a trained information specialist. Lastly, tools to simplify the data gathering process will be presented to ensure that reporting of methods and results is done in a manner consistent with the SR reporting guidelines of PRISMA, MOOSE, and Cochrane. The use of citation management software to track and manage search results and an Excel workbook designed specifically for systematic reviews will be introduced. The workbook tracks database searches and number of items found as well as included/excluded items, to help with creating a PRISMA flowchart as a final product. As part of a class exercise, participants will synthesize search results data to create a brief written description of methods and results. Following the Institute, an online site of materials and links will be available to all participants.

Session Objectives: Identify the steps of the systematic review/meta-analysis search process; Demonstrate the ability to utilize tools to manage the process of search results; Formulate appropriate aims for a systematic review.