Workshop on Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analysis

The objective of the workshop was to strengthen the knowledge of researchers in the area of Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analysis. There were a total of 30 participants. The day began with welcome address and overview by Dr. Judith Noronha, Associate Dean, MCON Manipal.

The formal workshop commenced with a session on ‘Introduction to Systematic Reviews’ by Mr. Ramesh C, PhD Scholar, MCON Manipal. He also spoke on the ‘Development of a Systematic Review Protocol’. He highlighted the importance of evidence based practice, types and importance of systematic reviews. He also presented an overview of steps of systematic review. The second session was on ‘Framing a Systematic Review question’ by Mr. Anil Raj, Administrative Officer, Geriatric Project, MCON Manipal.

‘Formulating a Search Strategy’ was explained by Dr. Baby S Nayak, Professor, MCON Manipal with hands on training for the participants. She highlighted on steps of search strategy in major data bases such as PubMed Medline, CINAHL, CENTRAL & IndMed.

The day ended with a session on ‘Retrieving, De-duplicating, & Extraction of Data’ by Dr. Prasanna Mithra P, Associate Professor, Dept. of Community Medicine, KMC, Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education. He highlighted on use of software COVIDENCE for deduplication of data.  

Second day of the workshop was started with ‘Randomization process and blinding’ by Mr. Vishnu Renjith, PhD Scholar, MCON, Manipal. He emphasised on techniques of randomisation and blinding. Session on ‘Assessing the Risk of Bias’ by Dr. Judith A Noronha, Associate Dean, MCON, Manipal highlighted on the need of avoiding risk of bias and how to report the findings. The third session was on Introduction to ‘Rev Man & Meta-Analysis by Dr. Ravishankar, Bio- statistician, Dept of Virus Research, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal with a hands on training. ‘Summarization, reporting of data, PRISMA & guidelines’ was covered by Mrs. Shalini G Nayak, Lecturer, MCON Manipal. Assessing the quality of evidence –GRADE approach was covered by Dr. B Unnikrishnan, Professor, Dept. Of Community Medicine & Assoc. Dean, KMC Mangalore.
The sessions were concluded at 4.00 pm. Certificates were distributed by Dr. Anice George, Dean & Organizing Chairperson of the workshop. The feedback on the programme was given by Mrs. Hani Bernia, Professor, Al-Shifa College of Nursing, Angadipuram, Kerala, and Dr. Suprabha B S, Professor, Pedodontics, MCODS, Mangalore, delegates for the workshop. Dr. Jyothi Chakrabarty, Assoc. Professor, MCON & Organizing Secretary proposed the vote of thanks. Mrs. Latha T, Asst. Professor, MCON Manipal was the Master of ceremony for the workshop. Participants in their feedback, appreciated the workshop and expressed their wish to have more such workshops to be conducted by Manipal College of Nursing Manipal.