Introduction to Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

We will introduce methods to perform systematic reviews and meta-analysis of clinical trials. We will cover how to formulate an answerable research question, define inclusion and exclusion criteria, search for the evidence, extract data, assess the risk of bias in clinical trials, and perform a meta-analysis.

Upon successfully completing this course, participants will be able to:

• Describe the steps in conducting a systematic review
• Develop an answerable question using the “Participants Interventions Comparisons Outcomes” (PICO) framework
• Describe the process used to collect and extract data from reports of clinical trials
• Describe methods to critically assess the risk of bias of clinical trials
• Describe and interpret the results of meta-analyses