Making sense of the evidence to inform programmes, policies, and practice

Researchers and practitioners often have to consolidate and review evidence to inform their work. However, assessing the quality of evidence, or knowing what type of review needs to be done, is not always straight forward. Therefore, this course is aimed at researchers and public health practitioners at any level who are interested in evaluating scientific evidence and/or conducting systematic reviews of published work.

In the course, we will learn about the types of evidence reviews relevant for public health practice and research, including – among the others- systematic and scoping reviews, starting with the definition of the question and problem specification, search methodology and screening, data extraction, and assessment of the quality of the papers. We will have an introduction to the most important study designs that can inform research and practice, describing their characteristics and how to appraise them. These are essential to allow participants to performa risk-of-bias assessment for each primary study included in the reviews, present summaries of evidence and provide – as appropriate - clinical practice recommendations. The course will also offer insights on how to use Artificial Intelligence tools to improve and help the conduct of reviews and how to efficiently discover and organize relevant literature. Further, we will present note taking tools and how the process of identifying, assessing, and distillate information from published sources can be integrated into the writing step.

By the end of the course the participant will:

• Be familiar with the steps in conducting various types of review;
• Understand the most important study designs like randomized controlled trials and how to evaluate them;
• Conduct and critically appraise systematic reviews;
• Be able to find relevant scientific papers and draw literature maps;
• Use a note-taking tool relevant for synthesizing evidence in public health.

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No pre-knowledge of statistical models is required although a degree of familiarity with basic epidemiological concepts and outcomes can help.

This 3-day course is a mixture of theoretical lectures, tutor-facilitated small group sessions, and hands-on tutorials with presentations and feedback given.

In order to get the Certificate of completion and the 1 ECTS participants MUST:

• Attend at least 80%of the course;
• Attend the plenary(s) offered during the days of the course;
• Actively participate in group-based discussions and exercises;
• Deliver a final team-presentation on the critical assessment of a systematic review.

At least one facilitator will be on-site in Lugano, and some will join online. Participants are welcomed to join either on-site in Lugano, or online. In case of a change of regional policies (e.g., Covid) or personal reasons, the course could change to online. For those on-site, the course will take place at Università della Svizzera italiana (USI).