“Four new Cochrane Overviews summarize evidence from systematic reviews about the effects of delivery, financial, and governance arrangements, and implementation strategies for health systems.[2-5] The overviews, published to coincide with the Global Evidence Summit (www.globalevidencesummit.org), are accompanied by more than 100 SUPPORT Summaries – short, structured summaries of the systematic reviews selected for inclusion in the overviews. In addition to summarizing the main findings of systematic reviews, SUPPORT summaries also assess the quality of the evidence for the main comparisons and reflect on the relevance of the results for low-income countries. Together, the overviews and SUPPORT Summaries provide a valuable tool set for both researchers and policy-makers.
The overviews summarize the findings of 124 systematic reviews, covering delivery (51), implementation (39), governance (19) and financing (15). The number of primary research studies captured by the four overviews, a total of 2630, is impressive. One can imagine interesting and informative graphics that might be produced based on the included primary research. For example, over time, is the relative proportion of evidence that is high or moderate certainty, or that was conducted in low- or middle-income countries, on the rise?”
Further information can be found within an Editorial at the Cochrane Website here.
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| Image: c by Mary Hockenbery |