Background: Systematic reviews (SRs) are being published at an accelerated rate. Decision-makers may struggle with comparing and choosing between multiple SRs on the same topic. We aimed to understand how healthcare decision-makers (eg, practitioners, policymakers, researchers) use SRs to inform decision-making and to explore the potential role of a proposed artificial intelligence (AI) tool to assist in critical appraisal and choosing among SRs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPending antibiotic susceptibility results, vancomycin is often used for bloodstream infections (BSIs) to ensure treatment of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). As rapid discrimination of methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) from MRSA in BSIs could decrease vancomycin use and allow early optimization of beta-lactam therapy, this study evaluated the impact of the use of rapid molecular testing for MSSA and MRSA coupled with an antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) intervention.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, coverage by critical care pharmacists (CCPs) was expanded in 2 medical-surgical intensive care units at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, from 8 hours per day, 5 days per week, excluding holidays, to 8 hours per day, 7 days per week, including holidays.
Objectives: To describe health care professionals' opinions about and perceived impacts of the expanded CCP coverage on patient care, as well as their opinions about the role of the CCP as a member of the critical care team.
Methods: An electronic 22-item survey was distributed to critical care health care professionals to capture opinions and perceived impacts of expanded CCP coverage.
Multiple 'overviews of reviews' conducted on the same topic ("overlapping overviews") represent a waste of research resources and can confuse clinicians making decisions amongst competing treatments. We aimed to assess the frequency and characteristics of overlapping overviews. MEDLINE, Epistemonikos and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were searched for overviews that: synthesized reviews of health interventions and conducted systematic searches.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOverviews synthesising the results of multiple systematic reviews help inform evidence-based clinical practice. In this first of two companion papers, we evaluate the bibliometrics of overviews, including their prevalence and factors affecting citation rates and journal impact factor (JIF). We searched MEDLINE, Epistemonikos and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Systematic reviews (SRs) can help decision makers interpret the deluge of published biomedical literature. However, a SR may be of limited use if the methods used to conduct the SR are flawed, and reporting of the SR is incomplete. To our knowledge, since 2004 there has been no cross-sectional study of the prevalence, focus, and completeness of reporting of SRs across different specialties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Selective reporting bias (SRB), the incomplete publication of outcomes measured or of analyses performed in a study, may lead to the over- or underestimation of treatment effects or harms. Cochrane systematic reviews of interventions are required to assess the risk of SRB, achieved in part by applying the Cochrane risk of bias tool to each included randomised trial. The Cochrane Handbook outlines strategies for a comprehensive risk of bias assessment, but the extent to which these are followed by Cochrane review groups (CRGs) has not been assessed to date.
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