Overview

The aim of this three day course is to provide participants with an introduction to methods for conducting systematic reviews and meta-analysis in health care. Sessions will be delivered by ScHARR staff experienced in systematic review methods and health technology assessment. The course will be interactive and practical, with delivery of sessions based on lectures and individual and small group practical exercises.

Who will benefit from this course?

The course is suitable for researchers who require an introduction to methods for conducting systematic 
reviews in health care, and professionals who need to develop the ability to interpret and asses the quality of systematic reviews. The course is also suitable for:

• Clinicians wanting to undertake their own systematic review
• PhD Students with a significant review component to their thesis
• Members of academic systematic review teams
• Pharmaceutical companies and consultancies requiring an understanding of review methods

No previous knowledge of systematic reviews or meta-analysis is assumed.

This course is relevant to anyone involved in systematic reviews. If you are specifically interested in qualitative evidence synthesis only, please see our ESQUIRE course for further details.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course participants should be able to:

• Identify the key stages of the systematic review process
• Define a review question and understand how to develop a review protocol
• Describe methods for identifying sources of evidence for systematic reviews
• Develop a search strategy to identify relevant studies for a specific review question and understand how to conduct a literature search
• Apply inclusion criteria to identify relevant studies
• Undertake critical appraisal of evidence using standardised quality checklists
• Develop a data extraction form and extract relevant outcomes from reported studies
• Select appropriate methods of evidence synthesis and be able to describe and summarise key results
• Be familiar with statistical methods for analysis of quantitative data
• Explore the use of meta-analysis in data synthesis using computer software
• Understand potential sources of heterogeneity between included studies
• Be familiar with good practice in reporting of systematic reviews
• Critically appraise a systematic review

Course Materials

Course Materials will be provided via a Delegate Course Website approximately 2 weeks prior to the course start date.  Hard copies of exercises will be provided throughout the course.  Hard copies of powerpoint presentations will not be generally provided, but these can be printed and downloaded by delegates before the start of the course via the Delegate Course Website if required.  A USB of all materials will be provided on the first day of the course during registration.

Delegates are asked to provide their own laptop to use for the duration of the course.  If this is not possible please contact us as soon as possible.

Faculty

Marrissa Martyn-St James, is the course leader for this popular ScHARR short course.

Andrew Booth

Plus other members of ScHARR staff to be confirmed.

Contact

For further information please do not hesitate to contact us via email at scharr-scu@sheffield.ac.uk

or call +44 (0)114 222 2968.