Systematic Review & Meta-Analysis

3.0 credits

This course will provide a detailed description of the systematic review process, discussing the strengths and limitations of the method. Step-by-step guidance on how to actually perform a systematic review and meta-analysis will be provided. Specific topics to be covered include formulation of the review question, searching of literature, quality assessment of studies, data extraction, meta-analytic methods, assessment of heterogeneity and report writing. The course will also cover statistical issues such as selection of statistical models for meta-analysis, practical examples of fixed and random effects models, best evidence syntheses (qualitative systematic reviews) as well as examples of methods to evaluate heterogeneity and publication bias. Used will be different statistical software to perform meta-analysis during the practice sessions, along with tutorials on how for effective use tools such as PubMed or Medline for conducting reviews. (Summer) May 21, 28 June 4, 11, 18, 25, July 9, 16, 23, 30 , Aug 6, 13