Key facts

Overview

Description

The Randomized Controlled Trials and the Systematic Reviews modules are both led by Mike Clarke who is Director of the All Ireland Hub for Trials Methodology Research at Queen’s University Belfast and Adjunct Professor at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College, Dublin.

This course will take the participants through the process of doing a systematic review and will focus on the practicalities rather than the theory. It will consider the practical aspects of:

• Question formulation
• Study identification
• Appraisal of quality
• Data extraction and collection
• Statistical synthesis
• Reporting

The course will follow a problem based learning approach.

In the first session, each participant will be asked to identify the question for the particular systematic review of health care interventions that they would like to discuss during the course. They will also be asked to highlight any particular challenges that they anticipate with working on this review.

The issues to be tackled in most detail in the other nine sessions will be determined through discussion within the group. There are no plans for formal lectures but suitably experienced co-Teaching Staff will be identified and invited to participate in sessions if the need arises.

The course will cover the following topics:

• Formulating the question for your systematic review
• Determining the eligibility criteria
• Study identification
• Data extraction
• Assessing trial quality
• Statistical analyses
• Heterogeneity
• Subgroup analyses
• Reporting and updating of systematic reviews
• Where to get help in the future

Staff

Professor Mike Clarke

Role: Module Coordinator

Mike Clarke is Chair of Research Methodology and Director of the MRC all-Ireland Hub for Trials Methodology Research at Queen’s University,...more Belfast. He was awarded a first class BA in Chemistry at the University of Oxford in 1984, which included a one-year thesis on the history of drug abuse. This led to a DPhil on the history of suicide in England and Wales, with special emphasis on the use of poisons. He started work in healthcare research in 1989 at the Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU) in Oxford, where he became responsible for collaborative overviews of cancer treatments. In these, individual patient data are collected and analysed for all patients entered into relevant trials. The largest of the projects concerns the treatment of operable breast cancer and has provided reliable estimates of the effects of a variety of treatments, which influence the care of women with breast cancer worldwide. In April 1999, Mike took up the new post of Associate Director (Research) at the UK Cochrane Centre. He was Director of the Centre from October 2002 until March 2011, when he moved to Belfast.

Mike has considerable experience in the conduct of large multicentre randomised trials and systematic reviews. He is actively involved with trials in pre-eclampsia, subarachnoid haemorrhage, maternity care, breast cancer and poisoning - each of which are among the largest ever randomised trials in these conditions. Mike has been involved with the University of Oxford’s MSc in Evidence Based Health Care since the course began, and developed the Randomised Controlled Trials and the Systematic Reviews elective modules. He continues to teach both these modules.

Mike received the title Professor of Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Oxford in October 2004. He is a Visiting Professor of the Evidence Based Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology Centre of the West China School of Medicine in Chengdu, home of the Chinese Cochrane Centre, Adjunct Professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Trinity College Dublin and Adjunct Professor at the National University of Ireland in Galway. In the last 20 years, Mike has published more than 200 papers and book chapters.

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Course aims

• Formulate a clear question for a systematic review and understand their key motivations for doing the review
• Specify the eligibility criteria for a systematic review
• Develop a search strategy for a systematic review
• Prepare a quality appraisal and data extraction form for a systematic review
• Identify, describe and discuss sources of heterogeneity among the studies in a systematic review
• Develop a statistical analysis plan for a systematic review
• Conduct, report and update a systematic review
• Use this knowledge to assess the quality of systematic reviews done by others

Assessment methods

Level and demands

Accommodation

Accommodation is available at the Rewley House Residential Centre, within the Department for Continuing Education, in central Oxford. The comfortable, en-suite, study-bedrooms are rated 3-star, and come with free high-speed internet access and TV. Guests can take advantage of the excellent dining facilities and common room bar, where they may relax and network with others on the programme.

Scholarships

Details of funding opportunities, including grants, bursaries, loans, scholarships and benefit information are available on our financial assistance page.

Fee options

Programme Fee

Students enrolled on MSc in Evidence-Based Health Care: £1500.00

Students enrolled on Postgraduate Cert in Health Research: £1500.00

Students enrolled on Postgraduate Dip in Health Research: £1500.00

Short course in health sciences: £2070.00

Apply for this course

Programmes including this module

This module can be studied as part of these programmes:

• MSc in Evidence-Based Health Care
• Postgraduate Certificate in Health Research
• Postgraduate Diploma in Health Research
• Short courses in health sciences