The new mandatory Systematic Review and Meta Analysis Course which made its debut on the 15th of November 2022, had its sophomore edition organized this year in July. The three-day course convened 50 Senior Residents together with trainers from the 19th to 21st at the College premises. The course is in keeping with the purpose of the Evidence-Based Medicine Course, which it replaced. It is set to equip Senior Residents with the necessary skills to enable them to improve on the quality of their research practice. Topics of interest during the course included, Development of answerable questions using the Participants Interventions Comparisons Outcomes (PICO) framework, Methods to critically assess risk of bias in clinical trials and Interpretation of the results of meta-analyses.
Trainers
The course was facilitated by three trainers, the first of which was Professor Charles Agyemang, who is endowed with over 20 years of experience in research and is currently a Professor of Global Migration, Ethnicity and Health and Principal Investigator at Amsterdam University Medical Centres, University of Amsterdam. The second trainer Mariska Leeflang is an Associate Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at the Amsterdam University Medical Centres, University of Amsterdam. She is also, one of the editors of Cochrane’s Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Diagnostic Test Accuracy and convenor of Cochrane’s Screening and Diagnostic Test Methods Group. The third trainer, Dr. Rene Spijker, is a trained molecular biologist who works as an information specialist with Cochrane Netherlands.
Comments from Trainees
Participants were generally positive when contacted by the Editorial Office for their views on the course. Dr. Munkaila Adam of the Faculty of Obstetrics and Gynaecology related that, “the training really helped and revealed efficient ways to seek out information when conducting a study”. Dr. Helen, A Senior Resident of the Faculty of Dental Surgery, intoned similar a sentiment, stating, “it was a really good and productive training and it has improved my appreciation for the need of precision and/or accuracy in research.
Expressing contentment and a recommendation, Dr. Abraham Titigah of the Faculty of Surgery and Sub-specialties remarked, “it was an excellent programme, organization was stellar; information was delivered on time and facilitators were extremely helpful. I believe it will be immensely productive if the opportunity is made available to all Residents, especially those in membership training”. With two successful runs of this course, the College aims to improve subsequent versions by expanding the intake of trainees, and making progressive adjustments to the training to ready Senior Residents whose investigative skills are in keeping with the evolving field of research.
