What do we do?

“Living Evidence to inform health decisions” is a knowledge transfer program that seeks to support the building of capacities among the groups, organizations, or institutions that carry out evidence synthesis to inform clinical or health policy decisions, for the incorporation the “living evidence” model on their current process, in order to efficiently integrate the most current evidence in the transfer products that they regularly generate.

The program has two main development areas. On one hand, it conduct research aimed at improving the production, use and application of the living evidence synthesis in different knowledge transfer scenarios, as well as identifying and evaluating efficient strategies for building capacity among key organizations in the health sector. On the other hand, the program provides services to support both, the building of the capacities among of groups and organizations for the production and use of living evidence syntheses to inform health decisions, as well as in the generation, maintenance, and periodical reporting of living evidence synthesis necessary to inform living recommendations in clinical practice guidelines, technology evaluations, summaries for institutional or public policies among other applications.

Research

Living Evidence To Inform Health Decisions

Methodological Approaches for Developing and Reporting Living Evidence Synthesis

Strengthening Decision-Making Capacity in the Spanish Health System Through Living Evidence

Living Evidence Synthesis Updates Reporting Model: The LESS Project

Services

Training in “living evidence” process and tools

Generation, maintenance and reporting of living evidence synthesis

Living recommendations in Clinical Practice guidelines

Consultancy and accompaniment in the generation of living clinical practice guidelines (“Living Guidelines”)

About us

We are a group of expert methodologists and health researchers, with extensive experience in the development of evidence synthesis and related products such as clinical practice guidelines, health technology assessment, among others aimed at supporting the knowledge transfer in health.

Working together with a group of expert advisors and strategic partners, we support our research, validate our processes, and promote the use and application of our developments for health decisions to be based on the must current and reliable evidence.

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María Ximena Rojas RN. MSc. PhD

IIB Sant Pau Barcelona, España

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Gerard Urrutia MD. PhD

IIB Sant Pau Barcelona, España

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Pablo Alonso MD. PhD

IIB Sant Pau Barcelona, España

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Gabriel Rada MD

Fundación Epistemonikos, Santiago, Chile.

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David Rigau Commas. MD. PhD

Cochrane Iberoamérica Barcelona, España

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Josefina Bendersky. DDS. MSc

Cochrane Iberoamerica. Santiago, Chile

Ariadna Auladell. Lic. FP. MSc

Programa de Doctorado en Investigación Biomédica Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona

Francisca Verdugo DDS. MSc

Fundación Epistemónikos

Methods

Following a “learning by doing” methodology we support groups, organizations and institutions that develop evidence synthesis to inform clinical or health policies decisions, in the production of a living evidence synthesis from its planning phase until the final report going thought the evidence surveillance and monitoring processes.

We use strategies and tools such as the LE-IHD framework and its handbook, to guide groups in applying the appropriate criteria in all steps of the process (i.e.  Identification of relevant questions to include in a “living mode”, planning (protocol) the living evidence synthesis, definition and conduct of the baseline synthesis of current evidence, monitoring of emerging evidence and incorporation into the conclusions that inform health decisions) as well as in the key decisions to determine whether or not a question should remain in “live mode”

We provide training in technological enablers that support the surveillance of emerging evidence, by online modules and regular virtual workshops.

We provide user-friendly formats to support each step of the evidence synthesis process, which have been developed following an iterative processes that involved expert consultation, user testing, and implementation as part of their validation process.

Finally, we provide editorial support and peer review for all the evidence synthesis reports generated as part of the process (i.e. Baseline and updates).

Management Structure and Funding

This program is being coordinated from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health of  the Institut de Recerca de l’Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau – Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau (IIB Sant Pau), cradle of the Ibero-American Cochrane Center in Barcelona, Spain. It is supported by an international group of expert methodologist advisers on topics related to the living evidence synthesis, development of clinical practice guidelines, and health technology evaluations.

The program is led by María Ximena Rojas RN, MSc, Ph.D, as principal investigator who started it as a beneficiary of the H2020 Marie Curie Actions for Individual Researchers grant (MSCA-IF-EF- ST #894990). Currently, it has different funding sources, including a grant from the Programa Estatal de Generación de Conocimiento y Fortalecimiento del Sistema Español, Subprograma estatal de generación de conocimiento, Instituto Carlos III de Madrid. 

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Advisers

Steve McDonald

Senior Research Fellow Monash University, Australia. Co-Director of Cochrane Australia. 

Tari Turner

Associate Professor (Research), Monash University, Australia. Director, Evidence and Methods, National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce. Executive Committee, Australian Living Evidence Consortium.

Philippe Ravaud

Director of the INSERM Epidemiology and Biostatistics Research Center. Full professor Faculté de Médecine. Université de Paris, France

Emma McFarlane

Technical Adviser NICE Surveillance programme. London U.K.

Holger Schünemann

Professor of the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Director of Cochrane Canada. Director of the McMaster GRADE Centre.

Elie Akl

Associate Professor. Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, American University of Beirut; Director of Clinical Epidemiology Unit at the Clinical Research Institute, American University of Beirut; and Co-Director of the Center for Systematic Reviews of Health Policy and Systems Research (SPARK)

Allies

Participants
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Participants

This research project focused on knowledge transfer and capacity building, involves the design and evaluation of a model strategy to integrate the processes of “living evidence” into the products that organizations and groups in charge of informing decisions carry out regularly.

Its results include a series of support tools for groups and organizations. We highlight the “LE-IHD” framework, an interactive tool that guides groups in the definition, planning, and maintenance of a living synthesis.

If you want to know more about this project, you can contact its main researcher María Ximena Rojas

Protocol

Starting date: September 2020

Current status: finished (December 2022)

LE – IHD Framework

Living Evidence Syntheses

Publications:  

Methods for developing and reporting living evidence synthesis

This is a methodological study that aims to identify, evaluate and summarize the methods and procedures used by the authors to keep the evidence “alive”.

To meet this objective, we will search the different health databases for all the articles that report a synthesis of living evidence to answer a health question. Articles that meet the previously established “Living Evidence” characteristics will be included and evaluated to obtain information related to the methods used by the authors to constantly identify new evidence, the procedures used to incorporate new findings into the evidence synthesis, and the process followed to inform users about the updates, among other information of methodological interest. This information will be analyzed and presented descriptively.

If you want to know more about this project, you can contact its main researcher Ariadna Auladell R

Protocol

Starting date : 09-2021

Current status: Data collection

Publications 

This project seeks to evaluate a capacity building strategy aimed at strengthening the abilities of the groups or institutions in the health sector in charge of synthesizing evidence to inform clinical decisions or health policies, for planning, developing, and maintaining the constant updating of the evidence synthesis through the living evidence model. This model is particularly applied in the solution of clinically relevant problems, in which the evidence changes rapidly, the effects of health interventions are controversial, or there are uncertainties due to their recent appearance as health technology.

The capacity building strategy involves a series of accompanying actions by expert methodologists, support in the LE-IHD framework and its user manual, in addition to training activities in the use of tools based on artificial intelligence, which support the processes of identification, selection and monitoring of emerging evidence.

If you want to know more about this project, you can contact its main researcher María Ximena Rojas

Starting date: February 2022

Current status: Data collection

Funding: Programa
Estatal de Generación de Conocimiento y Fortalecimiento del Sistema Español,
Subprograma estatal de generación de conocimiento, Instituto Carlos III de
Madrid (FIS 

Protocol

Living Evidence Syntheses

Publications

This is an iterative multidesign study that will allow for the systematic and rigorous development of a “living evidence update reporting model”. This model will serve as the basis for the construction of “Living Evidence Structured Summaries” (LESS) that present in a clear and structured way the necessary information for the decision maker, on the results of the evidence monitoring process, when it requires the incorporation of new evidence that changes the effects on key outcomes of the questions that are included in a “living mode”.

If you want to know more about this project, you can contact its main researcher Ariadna Auladell R

Starting date: January 2022

Current status: Planning phase

Protocol

Repository of Living Evidence Summaries

Publications