Identifying evidence and maintaining a specialised register of studies

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Identifying evidence and maintaining a
specialised register of studies

• Dr Alison Weightman
• Director, Support Unit for Research Evidence
  (SURE), Cardiff University, UK and Co-Convenor
  Cochrane Information Methods Retrieval Group
• Dr Angela Harden
• Associate Director, EPPI-Centre, Social Science
  Research Unit, Institute of Education, University
  of London, UK and Co-Director Cochrane Health
  Promotion and Public Health Field

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This talk

• Cochrane requirements for a Group Register of
  Studies
• History of the HPPH Field register TRoPHI
• From Field to Review Group register
• The size of the task
• Any potential collaborators if the Group gets go
  ahead?

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Cochrane specific core function 6

• For the editorial bases to develop and maintain
  a Specialized Register, containing all relevant
  studies in their area of interest, and submit
  this to CENTRAL on a quarterly basis

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The following details should be available in the
Groups module

• The inclusion criteria for the register
• The search strategy used
• Locating unpublished studies
• Access arrangements for authors

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TRoPHI

• The official register of the Cochrane Health
  Promotion and Public Health Field
• http//eppi.ioe.ac.uk/webdatabases/trophi
• Developed and maintained with funding from the
  English Department of Health since 1996 (ongoing
  funding secured until 2010)

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EPPI-Centre (http//eppi.ioe.ac.uk)

• Conducts and supports systematic reviews to
  support policy, practice and personal decisions
• Strong links with Cochrane and Campbell
  Collaborations
• Cochrane Collaboration provided coordination and
  co-direction of the health promotion and public
  health (HPPH) field since 1996
• Trials register
• Trial Search Coordinator (Josephine Kavanagh)
• Methodological expertise and development for
  conducting HPPH systematic reviews

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What TRoPHI contains

• Populated by
• Prospective searches of
• PubMED
• EMBASE
• Cochrane Controlled Trials Register
• Hand searching
• EPPI-Centre reviews

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What TRoPHI contains

• 3,254 trials (randomised and non-randomised)
• 81 countries around the world
• All trials coded according to
• Topic focus
• Population
• Intervention site, type and provider
• Cost indication

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TRoPHI From field register to review group
register

• Upstream and equity focus
• Searching across domains including social science
  databases
• Expanding hand searching activities
• Expanding range of studies
• The need for collaboration!

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The task
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Scoping developing the register

• Inclusion criteria
• Upstream and equity focus Developed developing
  countries What about non-RCTs, EPOC and beyond?
• Search strategy
• Huge potential range of databases
  Hand-searching Search filter development
• Locating unpublished studies
• Grey literature Expert contacts
• Access management
• - Collaboration structure Access for authors
  Finance

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What next

• Any comments or questions?
• Any potential collaborators?
• Contacts
• A.Harden_at_ioe.ac.uk
• WeightmanAL_at_cf.ac.uk