PURPOSE

: Explore how the risks of bias in systematic reviews with cost or cost-effectiveness outcomes can be addressed in review design and assessed in its evaluation

DESCRIPTION

: A dramatic increase of health economic studies has led to a consequent proliferation of systematic reviews summarizing their results. The diversity of methods and outcomes of these reviews (eg, methodologic or synthesizing reviews, including trials or models, reporting absolute costs or cost-effectiveness ratios) make it difficult for the reader to use this summarized information most effectively. Systematic reviews are generally perceived as a “lens of evidence”. However, the reviews themselves are subjected to biases. Thus, understanding the risk of bias is necessary to transform the systematic reviews into a valuable tool for decision makers.

Speakers will discuss:

• Planning the review and literature search (10 min)
• Literature selection and validation (10 min)
• Literature extraction and synthesis (10 min)
• Presentation and reporting (10 min)

We will compare how the recommendations for systematic reviews reporting cost outcomes align or disagree with the recommendations for clinical reviews, eg, the Overview Quality Assessment Questionnaire (OQAQ), Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR), and Risk of Bias in Systematic reviews (ROBIS)).

More specifically, the following issues will be discussed:

1. How specific should be objectives of cost-related reviews?
2. What are the relevant grey literature sources reporting cost outcomes in systematic reviews?
3. Should social networks be used as a source of cost data?
4. Does artificial intelligence increase or minimize the risk of bias in systematic reviews?
5. What is the best method for data synthesis in reviews with cost components (ie, applying a quantitative synthesis versus narrative or graphical syntheses)?
6. When synthesizing the findings, how does one reach a threshold between consolidated conclusion and transferability of the results?

This workshop will benefit decision makers, researchers, and producers of health technologies.