Workshop on Systematic Reviews

The objective of the workshop was to strengthen the knowledge of Researchers in the area of Systematic Reviews. The inauguration of the workshop was held on 29th November, 2016. Dr. Sreekumaran Nair, Director, Public Health Evidence, South Asia (PHESA) & HOD, Dept. of Statistics, MU, Manipal, was the Chief Guest for the Inaugural function. Dr. Anice George, Dean, Manipal College of Nursing, Manipal in her welcome address gave an overview of the programme. In his inaugural address, Dr. Sreekumaran spoke on ‘Evolution and Significance of Systematic Reviews’. Vote of thanks was conveyed by Mrs. Manjula, Organising Secretary & Asst. Professor, MCON, Manipal. Mrs. Latha T, Asst. Professor, MCON Manipal was the Master of ceremony for the Inaugural function. 

The formal workshop commenced with a session on ‘Introduction to Systematic Reviews’ Mr. Ramesh C, PhD Scholar, MCON Manipal spoke on ‘Development of a Systematic Review Protocol’. He highlighted on importance of evidence based practice, types and importance of systematic reviews. He also presented an overview of steps of systematic review. The second session was on ‘Framing a Systematic Review question’ by Dr. Judith A Noronha, Professor and HOD, Dept of OBG Nursing & Associate Dean, MCON Manipal. The last session in the morning was on ‘Formulating a Search Strategy’ by Dr. Baby S Nayak with hands on training for the participants. She highlighted on steps of search strategy in major data bases such as PubMed Medline, CINAHL & CENTRAL. 

The afternoon session started with a session on ‘Retrieving , De-duplicating, & Extraction of Data’ by Dr. Prasanna Mithra P, Associate Professor, Dept. of Community Medicine, KMC, Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education. He highlighted on use of software COVIDENCE for deduplication of data. The next session was on Meta- analysis by Dr. Sreekumaran Nair. He explained about the process of meta-analysis. The last session of the first day was by Mr. Vishnu Renjith, PhD Scholar, MCON, Manipal on ‘Randomization process and blinding’.

Second day of the workshop started with a session on ‘Assessing the Risk of Bias’ by Dr. Judith A Noronha, She has emphasized on the need of avoiding risk of bias and how to report the findings. The second session for the day was on ‘Summarization, reporting of data, PRISMA& MOOSE guidelines’ by Ms. Shejila C H, PhD Scholar, MCON, Manipal. which was followed by a session on ‘Synthesizing Qualitative Research: Qualitative Meta Synthesis’ by Mr. Vishnu Renjith .The third session was on Introduction to ‘Rev Man & STATA’ by Dr. Ravishankar, Bio- statistician, Dept of Virus Research, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal with a hands on training.  

The afternoon session started with a session on ‘Assessing the Quality of Evidence –GRADE approach &STROBE’ guidelines by Dr. Unnikrishnan, Professor, Dept. of Community Medicine, Associate Dean, KMC, Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education which was followed by session on ‘Publication Ethics’ by Dr. Anice George, Professor & Dean, Manipal College of Nursing Manipal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education. 

The workshop concluded at 4 pm. with a report by organizing secretary, which was followed by awarding the workshop certificates by Dr. Anice George, Organizing Chairperson of the workshop. The feedback on the programme was given by Dr. Leena K C, the workshop delegate. Ms. Manjula, Organizing Secretary proposed the vote of thanks.  

A total of 30 participants from different institutions of the country participated in the workshop. All the participants were involved actively in the group activities. The group a truly Interprofessional one. The participants while appreciating the workshop said that it will be very useful in their day to day professional activities.