Systematic Reviews in Health Research Explore the cutting-edge of systematic reviews in healthcare In this Third Edition of the classic Systematic Reviews textbook, now titled Systematic Reviews in Health Research, a team of distinguished researchers deliver a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the rapidly evolving area of systematic reviews and meta-analysis. The book demonstrates why systematic reviews—when conducted properly—provide the highest quality evidence on clinical and public health interventions and shows how they contribute to inference in many other contexts. The new edition reflects the broad role of systematic reviews, including: Twelve new chapters, covering additional study designs, methods and software, for example, on genetic association studies, prediction models, prevalence studies, network and dose-response meta-analysis Thorough update of 15 chapters focusing on systematic reviews of interventions Access to a companion website offering supplementary materials and practical exercises (www.systematic-reviews3.org) A key text for health researchers, Systematic Reviews in Health Research is also an indispensable resource for practitioners, students, and instructors in the health sciences needing to understand research synthesis.

Healthcare decision makers in search of reliable information that compares health interventions increasingly turn to systematic reviews for the best summary of the evidence. Systematic reviews identify, select, assess, and synthesize the findings of similar but separate studies, and can help clarify what is known and not known about the potential benefits and harms of drugs, devices, and other healthcare services. Systematic reviews can be helpful for clinicians who want to integrate research findings into their daily practices, for patients to make well-informed choices about their own care, for professional medical societies and other organizations that develop clinical practice guidelines. Too often systematic reviews are of uncertain or poor quality. There are no universally accepted standards for developing systematic reviews leading to variability in how conflicts of interest and biases are handled, how evidence is appraised, and the overall scientific rigor of the process. In Finding What Works in Health Care the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommends 21 standards for developing high-quality systematic reviews of comparative effectiveness research. The standards address the entire systematic review process from the initial steps of formulating the topic and building the review team to producing a detailed final report that synthesizes what the evidence shows and where knowledge gaps remain. Finding What Works in Health Care also proposes a framework for improving the quality of the science underpinning systematic reviews. This book will serve as a vital resource for both sponsors and producers of systematic reviews of comparative effectiveness research.

What do we do if different studies appear to give different answers? When applying research to questions for individual patients or for health policy, one of the challenges is interpreting such apparently conflicting research. A systematic review is a method to systematically identify relevant research, appraise its quality, and synthesize the results. The last two decades have seen increasing interest and developments in methods for doing high quality systematic reviews. Part I of this book provides a clear introduction to the concepts of reviewing, and lucidly describes the difficulties and traps to avoid. A unique feature of the book is its description, in Part II, of the different methods needed for different types of health care questions: frequency of disease, prognosis, diagnosis, risk, and management. As well as illustrative examples, there are exercises for each of the sections. This is essential reading for those interested in synthesizing health care research.

The second edition of this best-selling book has been thoroughly revised and expanded to reflect the significant changes and advances made in systematic reviewing. New features include discussion on the rationale, meta-analyses of prognostic and diagnostic studies and software, and the use of systematic reviews in practice.

The systematic review is a rigorous method of collating and synthesizing evidence from multiple studies, producing a whole greater than the sum of parts. This textbook is an authoritative and accessible guide to an activity that is often found overwhelming. The authors steer readers on a logical, sequential path through the process, taking account of the different needs of researchers, students and practitioners. Practical guidance is provided on the fundamentals of systematic reviewing and also on advanced techniques such as meta-analysis. Examples are given in each chapter, with a succinct glossary to support the text. This up-to-date, accessible textbook will satisfy the needs of students, practitioners and educators in the sphere of healthcare, and contribute to improving the quality of evidence-based practice. The authors will advise some freely available or inexpensive open source/access resources (such as PubMed, R and Zotero) to help students how to perform a systemic review, in particular those with limited resources.

This timely, engaging book provides an overview of the nature, logic, diversity and process of undertaking systematic reviews as part of evidence informed decision making. A focused, accessible and technically up-to-date book, it covers the full breadth of approaches to reviews from statistical meta analysis to meta ethnography. It is ideal for anyone undertaking their own systematic review - providing all the necessary conceptual and technical background needed to make a good start on the process. The content is divided into five clear sections: • Approaches to reviewing • Getting started • Gathering and describing research • Appraising and synthesising data • Making use of reviews/models of research use. Easy to read and logically structured, this book is essential reading for anyone doing systematic reviews. David Gough is Professor of Evidence Informed Policy and Practice and Director of SSRU and its EPPI-Centre and Co-Editor of the journal Evidence & Policy. Sandy Oliver is Professor of Public Policy and Deputy Director of SSRU and its EPPI-Centre. James Thomas is Reader in Social Policy, Assistant Director of SSRU and Associate Direcctor of the EPPI-Centre.

Healthcare providers, consumers, researchers and policy makers are inundated with unmanageable amounts of information, including evidence from healthcare research. It has become impossible for all to have the time and resources to find, appraise and interpret this evidence and incorporate it into healthcare decisions. Cochrane Reviews respond to this challenge by identifying, appraising and synthesizing research-based evidence and presenting it in a standardized format, published in The Cochrane Library (www.thecochranelibrary.com). The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions contains methodological guidance for the preparation and maintenance of Cochrane intervention reviews. Written in a clear and accessible format, it is the essential manual for all those preparing, maintaining and reading Cochrane reviews. Many of the principles and methods described here are appropriate for systematic reviews applied to other types of research and to systematic reviews of interventions undertaken by others. It is hoped therefore that this book will be invaluable to all those who want to understand the role of systematic reviews, critically appraise published reviews or perform reviews themselves.