Eahil Dublin 2009 Workshop

Tuesday 2 June 2009 9.00 - 12.30 THIS COURSE IS NOW FULL

Cost: €60
Capacity: 20 participants
Venue: La Touche Room D 10, Dublin Castle

Course description: As the volume of published research grows, the efficient identification of relevant studies performed according to specific methods is becoming more challenging. Many search filters, for example those designed to retrieve specific study designs such as randomized controlled trials or diagnostic test accuracy studies, or research issues such as adverse events, are being designed and published. Increasingly, these filters are being incorporated into database search interfaces, such as the PubMed Clinical Queries. As the number of filters grows, the challenge of choosing between them is becoming more apparent. For example, we are aware of at least 22 filters to identify diagnostic test accuracy studies. Information professionals and others wishing to use search filters need to be aware not only of issues of filter design and quality but also of suitability in order to make informed choices in the area of selecting and applying search filters.

This Continuing Education Course will focus on two key issues: identifying search filters and evaluating them in context.

This course will address the identification of a wide range of search filters, drawing on the Search Filter Resource put together by the InterTASC Information Specialists' Sub-Group (ISSG) - the group of information professionals supporting research groups within England and Scotland providing technology assessments to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE): http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/intertasc/.

The course will also explore issues around the quality assessment of search filters, including factors such as the method of development, reliability, sensitivity and precision and fitness for purpose in a given context. This will draw on the search filter quality checklist designed as part of the above project.

Through discussion and a practical session involving the critical appraisal of a filter, course attendees will explore issues in filter design methods. Attendees will explore key factors they need to assess before deciding whether to use a particular search filter to retrieve studies using a specific research method in a particular context.

Julie Glanville is the Project Director – Information Services for York Health Economics Consortium Ltd (YHEC), University of York. Julie manages search support services and training to YHEC and its clients. Prior to joining YHEC, Julie was a founder member and later Associate Director of the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD), University of York, which undertakes systematic reviews and health technology assessments. Julie has undertaken hundreds of literature search projects to identify evidence for systematic reviews and health technology assessments during her career. As well as being an expert searcher, she is an experienced service manager who has managed a range of information research projects and the NHS Economic Evaluation Database (NHS EED). Julie has delivered information, research services and training to a wide range of customers including NICE, the Society for Academic Primary Care and the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement.

Julie’s research interests are in information retrieval to inform systematic reviews, health technology assessments and economic models. She has developed and published a range of search filters including the revised Cochrane RCT filter (1) and is a contributor to, and former coordinator of, the ISSG search filter website. Julie has collaborated on the development of key search guidance publications (2,3).

Carol Lefebvre is the Senior Information Specialist at the UK Cochrane Centre where she has worked since 1992. Previously she was the Deputy Librarian at the University of Oxford Medical School library in the UK. Carol co-ordinates the identification of reports of trials for inclusion in the Cochrane Central register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) in The Cochrane Library and facilitates the inclusion of these trials in Cochrane reviews by supporting Trials Search Co-ordinators in the various Cochrane Review Groups. She was Principal Investigator on two European Union-funded projects involving six other Cochrane Centres, to identify reports of trials by handsearching European journals. Carol has also initiated the systematic searching of MEDLINE and EMBASE for all reports of trials.

Carol’s research interests include improving the design of search strategies, or filters, to identify reports of trials and systematic reviews. She designed the original Cochrane Highly Sensitive Search Strategy for identifying reports of randomized trials in MEDLINE, which she and colleagues have recently revised using objective statistical analysis techniques (1). She is the lead author of The Cochrane Collaboration’s policy document on searching for studies (3).

She is an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals of the UK.