Living Evidence Home

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.

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.