Table 1 Outline of the seven steps of the efficient evidence review
Stage | Stage of efficient evidence review | Barrier to evidence-based policy-making addressed |
|---|---|---|
1 | Establishing a review team with expertise both in the topic and in systematic reviewing | Lack of skills in the interpretation and collation of evidence |
2 | Clarifying the review questions with policy makers and subject experts who acted as review sponsors | Lack of relevance to policy, poor question definition, lengthy duration of research |
3 | Development of review protocol to systematically identify quantitative and qualitative evidence | Lengthy duration of research, inclusion of non-experimental studies |
4 | Agreeing a framework to structure the analysis of the reviews around a consistent set of key concepts and outcomes | Consideration of outcomes and values, clarity of research findings |
5 | Developing an iterative process between policy makers, reviewers and review sponsors | Relevance to policy |
6 | Rapid searches and retrieval of literature | Lengthy duration of research, consideration of outcomes and values |
7 | Analysis of identified literature which was mapped to the framework and included review sponsor input | Lengthy duration of research, consideration of outcomes and values, consideration of context and relevance to policy |
8 | Production of recommendations mapped to the agreed framework and presented as ‘summary topsheets’ | Unclear or difficult to interpret conclusions |
