What is a systematic review?

Systematic reviews are the gold standard in reviewing. They aim to adopt a scientific approach to identifying and consolidating all of the available evidence relevant to a specific research question.

Systematic reviews should be carried out according to a predefined protocol that sets out the scope of the systematic review and provides the detailed methods that will be used to produce the review.

Key components of a systematic review include:

• A well-developed research question captured in detailed eligibility criteria (the “PICO”)
• Systematic and extensive searches to identify as much of the relevant published and unpublished literature as possible
• Study selection according to the predefined eligibility criteria (the “PICO”)
• Extraction of the data necessary to answer the review question
• Assessment of the risk of bias for included studies
• Synthesis of the evidence identified
• Presentation of the findings in an independent and impartial manner
• Discussion of the limitations of the evidence and of the review methods

Systematic reviews can evaluate a range of evidence; qualitative, quantitative or a combination of both. Appropriate methods of synthesis should be used for different types of evidence.

When do you need a systematic review?

• To address a specific research question on a intervention or service within its indicated population, for example to inform a health economic model
• To systematically review effects and safety, utilities, economic evaluations (e.g. cost-effectiveness) or resource use when submitting to NICE or other health technology agencies
• To investigate the burden of illness of a disease area

How can we help you?

 We can help you to:

• Define your research question
• Develop a review protocol to ensure that the review will help you to answer the question
• Undertake extensive literature searches to ensure as many studies as possible relevant to the review question
• Assess the risk of bias of the individual trials and across the studies
• Extract the relevant data from each trial that is required to inform the review and any subsequent analyses
• Synthesise the outcome evidence either as a narrative or using meta-analysis
• Provide a detailed report write-up, according to the PRISMA reporting guidelines or in another format to suit your needs
• Provide the relevant text for your HTA submission within the main report or in the relevant HTA template