"Because systematic reviews inform patient care, they need to be of the highest quality. We hope the PRISMA 2020 statement can help make that happen.” -Dr. David MoherDr. David Moher and colleagues have published an updated PRISMA 2020 statement and explanation and elaboration to ensure these important guidelines continue to help researchers produce high-quality systematic reviews.
Systematic reviews are studies that answer a specific question by summarizing all past research on the topic using an evidence-based approach. They are extremely important in healthcare because they are used by care providers to stay up to date in their field and often form the basis of treatment guidelines.
To help solve the problem of low-quality systematic reviews, Dr. David Moher spearheaded the development of the first PRISMA statement in 2009, which has been cited over 60,000 times. The statement includes a checklist of items to help researchers make their studies more transparent, complete and accurate.
The updated PRISMA 2020 statement, published in The BMJ, takes into account the many innovations made in the field over the past decade, including new terminology, Open Science publishing, new methods to assess the risk of bias, and technological advancements like machine learning.
“Because systematic reviews inform patient care, they need to be of the highest quality. We hope the PRISMA 2020 statement can help make that happen.” said Dr. David Moher, Director of the Centre for Journalology at The Ottawa Hospital, University Research Chair in Systematic Reviews at the University of Ottawa.
Authors: Matthew Page, Joanne McKenzie, Patrick Bossuyt, Isabelle Boutron, Tammy Hoffmann, Cynthia Mulrow, Larissa Shamseer, Jennifer Tetzlaff, Elie Akl, Sue Brennan, Roger Chou, Julie Glanville, Jeremy Grimshaw, Asbjørn Hróbjartsson, Manoj Lalu, Tianjing Li1, Elizabeth Loder, Evan Mayo-Wilson, Steve McDonald, Luke McGuinness, Lesley Stewart, James Thomas, Andrea Tricco, Vivian Welch, Penny Whiting, David Moher
Source: The BMJ
Funding: This research received no direct funding. Research at The Ottawa Hospital is enabled by generous donations to The Ottawa Hospital Foundation.
The Ottawa Hospital is a leading academic health, research and learning hospital proudly affiliated with the University of Ottawa.
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