Systematic reviews and meta-analysis

Code:

OPT71

Acronym:

RSMA

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Medicine

Instance: 2017/2018 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of Community Medicine, Information and Health Decision Sciences
Course/CS Responsible:	Integrated Master in Medicine

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MIMED	12	Mestrado Integrado em Medicina- Plano oficial 2013 (Reforma Curricular)	4	-	1,5	14	40,5

Teaching language

Suitable for English-speaking students

Objectives

The practice of Medicine – from diagnosis and prognosis to therapy and prevention – is clearly linked to the development, critical appraisal and application of high-quality scientific evidence to support healthcare of the highest quality.  Evidence synthesis studies, namely systematic reviews and meta-analysis, increasingly have a crucial role as a response to the growing accumulation of scientific evidence of heterogeneous nature, design and quality.

Learning outcomes and competences

At the end of this course, students should be able to: adequately define clinical research questions in this context; plan and conduct adequate bibliographic searches; define study selection criteria and assess the quality of included studies; extract and process data from included studies; understand and apply statistical methods in the context of a systematic review and meta-analysis; present, write, and critically appraise systematic reviews and meta-analysis.

Working method

Presencial

Program

Scientific Research in Health and Medicine. Evidence Based Medicine.

Evidence synthesis studies – definitions and classification.

Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis – operational phases:

• Research question formulation;
• Bibliographic searches;
• Studies selection;
• Data extraction and processing;
• Study quality assessment;
• Statistical analysis in evidence synthesis studies – Meta-Analysis;
• Assessing between study heterogeneity;
• Publication and other bias in evidence synthesis studies;
• Presenting a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis;
• Writing and publishing a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Mandatory literature

Higgins J, Green S, Ed; Cochrane handbook for systematic reviews of interventions, West Sussex; England: John Willey & Sons Ltd. , 2008
Sutton, A. J., Abrams, K.R., Jones, D. R., Sheldon, T. A. & Song, F. ; Methods for Meta-analysis in Medical Research, London, United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2000

Teaching methods and learning activities

The course will have a total duration of 14 hours; 7 hours of theoretical classes and  7 hours of theoretical-practical classes. After the presentation of each topic there will be time to solve practical exercises, typically using specific software. An e-learning platform will be used to support theoretical and practical classes.

Software

Review Manager (RevMan) [Computer program]. Version 5.3. Copenhagen: The Nordic Cochrane Centre, The Cochrane Collaboration, 2014.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Exame	50,00
Trabalho escrito	50,00
Total:	100,00

Calculation formula of final grade

Evaluation: Theoretical test (50%); Presentation of a work (50%)