Evidence Review and Synthesis

An Evidence Review and Synthesis Centre (ERSC) is responsible for developing systematic evidence reviews to inform practice guidelines and recommendations. Established through a competitive granting process, the ERSC is located at McMaster University and it is co-funded with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

What the Centre Does

The ERSC will appraise and synthesize the latest data on clinical interventions, to provide the Task Force with a state-of-the-art evidence summary on which to base its guidelines. Other ERSC activities will include:

• Assessing and refining clinical practice guideline topics;
• Developing an analytic framework and key questions in collaboration with the Task Force;
• Performing scientific literature reviews;
• Synthesizing scientific evidence in a transparent and reproducible manner;
• Performing decision analyses, meta-analyses and cost effectiveness analysis;
• Obtaining peer review from national and international experts;
• Writing reports to summarize the evidence;
• Providing technical assistance to help potential users translate evidence-based knowledge into clinical practice;
• Conducting research on the methodology and process of developing systematic reviews and health technology assessments;
• Developing, implementing and evaluating evidence-based tools to improve clinical practice;
• Identifying and commenting on gaps in the literature, as well as suggesting potential research questions, study designs, and analytical methods to address these gaps in future studies; and
• Publishing results of reports in peer-reviewed journals, presentations at conferences and preparation of special journal supplements.

Each year, the Task Force will determine the scope of topics to be assessed by the ERSC, the type of synthesis and the timelines for their completion.  The Task Force will also provide guidance to the ERSC regarding review methodology and criteria.