Systematic review by Cochrane Belgium

Target Group

PhD researchers within the field of medicine and healthcare, planning or interested in performing a high-quality (Cochrane) systematic review of intervention research.

Abstract

Systematic reviews are key elements in evidence-based healthcare and clinical guidelines. This course focuses on systematic reviews in intervention research. Systematic reviews use a systematic and transparent approach to identify all relevant articles, appraise the risk of bias, examine sources of variation, and, if appropriate, meta-analyse the results of the primary studies. This systematic approach distinguishes high-quality systematic reviews from traditional, so-called narrative, reviews and low-quality systematic reviews.

This course will offer a mix of lectures and practicals that will help the student to perform all of these steps in practice. In addition, specific challenges to systematic reviews and new developments will be highlighted.

Cochrane is an international non-profit organization that produces and disseminates trusted systematic reviews, and advocate for its use (www.cochrane.org). The focus of Cochrane is on systematic reviews of intervention research in health care and health policy. The Cochrane methodology is considered the gold standard in systematic review development. Cochrane Belgium provides guidance and support to researchers interested in performing a systematic review.

Objectives

This 3-day course focuses on systematic reviews of interventions. It will teach you all about the different steps to take to perform a high-quality, methodologically sound and reliable systematic review.

This hands-on course consists of plenary sessions and workshops on:

• the rationale for performing a systematic review
• the key steps of a systematic review
• the formulation a proper review question addressing a therapeutic dilemma
• the writing of a systematic review protocol
• the design of a comprehensive and efficient search strategy to identify relevant RCT’s in electronic bibliographic databases
• the assessment of primary studies (RCT) for their risk of bias
• meta-analysis & the difference between fixed and random effects approach and their assumptions
• the different measures of heterogeneity
• the interpretation of the findings and the assessment the GRADE certainty of evidence

The course, taught by experienced systematic review experts, is filled with workshops and exercises, thus preparing you to get started immediately on your own systematic review.

For more information about the content of the course, visit the Cochrane Belgium website (http://belgium.cochrane.org/en/) or contact the team at cochrane.belgium@gmail.com.

Programme

Please find the program here. 

Time and Venue

Registration

• Please follow this link for the registration and waiting list. We check if you are eligible to participate. Due to limited places, we give priority to PhD students. Your registration will be confirmed by separate e-mail (outlook invite).

• Cancellation of your registration can only be performed by sending an email to doctoralschools@ugent.be.

• The no show policy applies.

• Researchers affiliated to another Flemish University than Ghent University can register via their Doctoral School. 

Registration fee

Free of charge for Doctoral School members. 

Number of participants

33

Language

English

Evaluation methods and criteria (doctoral training programme)

100 % participation

After successful participation, the Doctoral School Office will add this course to your curriculum of the Doctoral Training Programme in Oasis. Please note that this can take up to one to two months after completion of the course.