Discover practical ways to critically appraise scientific literature, including the conduction and interpretation of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Additionally, you will learn how to conduct literature searches using online academic databases, hear about economic evaluations, and understand how clinical practice guidelines are used to guide decision making.
This course includes the following 11 lectures:
Overview of Systematic Reviews
Finding and Managing the Evidence from the Biomedical Literature
Intervention Reviews Methodology
Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials: Direct Comparisons
Introduction to Meta-Analysis: Indirect Comparisons
Meta-Analysis of Non-Randomized Studies
Diagnostic Test Evaluation
Meta-Synthesis
Clinical Practice Guidelines
Economic Evaluation
Decision Analysis for Outcomes Research
This course is intended for anyone interested in comparative effectiveness research (CER) and patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) methods.
This course is supported by grant number R25HS023214 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Syllabus
Overview of Systematic Reviews
Knowledge synthesis and the knowledge-to-action process
Benefits and limitations of systematic reviews
Steps of a systematic review and levels of evidence
Finding and Managing the Evidence from the Biomedical Literature
How to search published and unpublished materials on topic of interest in a systematic and repeatable manner
Intervention Reviews Methodology
How to select and appraise studies
Strategies for collecting and analyzing data
How to report and update systematic reviews
Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials: Direct Comparisons
Qualitative and quantitative synthesis
Models to use during data analysis
Heterogeneity
Reporting methods for meta-analyses
Introduction to Meta-Analysis: Indirect Comparisons
Indirect comparisons
Evidence networks
Effect modifiers and how they are a source of bias
Meta-Analysis of Non-Randomized Studies
Risks of bias in non-randomized studies
Meta-regression as a tool to reduce risk of bias
Caveats of meta-regression
Reporting meta-analyses of non-randomized studies
Diagnostic Test Evaluation
Purposes for medical testing
Precision and accuracy
Measures of validity for diagnostic/screening tests
Likelihood ratio for analysis of test performance
ROC curves for analysis of test performance
Meta-Synthesis
Methods for collecting and synthesizing data
Reporting of meta-synthesis findings
Clinical Practice Guidelines
Process of guideline development
How evidence is evaluated
How clinical practice guidelines are evaluated and revised
Economic Evaluation
Clinical decision analysis and economic evaluation
Costs and methods for economic evaluation
Cost-effectiveness and cost analysis
Steps for economic evaluation
Decision Analysis for Outcomes Research
Decision analysis and modeling
Markov modeling
Capturing of uncertainty in models
Examples of decision modeling in cancer outcomes research
3 weeks long, 4-5 hours a week
Free Online Course (Audit)