Evidence Synthesis Ireland (ESI), which hosts Cochrane Ireland, aims to make evidence syntheses more usable in every sense of the word – better designed, conducted and reported, more useable for decision-makers and more usable within health care policy and clinical practice decision making across the island of Ireland and beyond.
We provide education for researchers, clinicians, the public and policymakers who conduct or use evidence syntheses.
We build capacity in planning, doing and sharing evidence syntheses through Fellowships, workshops and scholarships.
We advance the way we plan, do and share the results of evidence synthesis by finding out how to do these steps better.
november 2025
To register, CLICK HERE Health technology assessment (HTA) is a multidisciplinary process to determine the value of a health technology to inform decision-making. A HTA comprises
To register, CLICK HERE
Health technology assessment (HTA) is a multidisciplinary process to determine the value of a health technology to inform decision-making. A HTA comprises several domains, including clinical effectiveness, epidemiology and economic evaluation, each of which relies on evidence synthesis. When we think of evidence synthesis, we often picture systematic reviews and a formal, well-structured process for gathering and evaluating information. The need to provide a range of timely evidence syntheses on a single topic often requires reliance on data across the spectrum in terms of quality, quantity, and applicability. In this webinar we will discuss some of the challenges in evidence synthesis when the best available evidence may not answer all the questions. Given that a decision maker cannot usually wait for further high quality studies, we will highlight some of the approaches to ensuring that the evidence is presented to address decision uncertainty.
Speakers:
Laura Rouncivell is a Health Services Researcher in HIQA’s HTA Directorate. She has a background in public health and epidemiology, with her postgraduate research focused on evidence synthesis in HIV and women’s health. Prior to joining HIQA, she worked in health system strengthening in South Africa and later in market access consultancy in Ireland, where she developed health technology assessments of pharmaceutical drugs. Laura has a particular interest in systematic review and meta-analysis.
Conor Teljeur is Chief Scientist in HIQA’s Health Technology Assessment Directorate. He has worked in HTA since 2010, working across all domains including developing numerous economic models. He also contributed to several European methodological guidelines. Before HIQA, he worked for 12 years as a health services researcher in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care in Trinity College Dublin, with a particular interest in deprivation and spatial analysis.

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(Thursday) 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
ONLINE
december 2025
Health care policy and practice decisions should be based on a synthesis of the global body of evidence rather than relying on individual studies. Cochrane Ireland and Evidence
Health care policy and practice decisions should be based on a synthesis of the global body of evidence rather than relying on individual studies. Cochrane Ireland and Evidence Synthesis Ireland promote evidence based healthcare policy and practice by supporting high quality, relevant systematic reviews and other synthesised research evidence. This workshop provides authors, actively involved in conducting a systematic review, with confidence to assess a wide range of data types. It offers an insight into more complex methods of meta-analysis.
Date: 1st, 2nd, 8th & 9th December 2025
Time: 10.00 am – 1.00 pm
Places: 20 places available for individuals who are resident on the island of Ireland
Fee: €150 General & €80 Student
Target audience
Healthcare professionals, academics, researchers, decision makers and Evidence Synthesis Ireland fellows who are actively involved in performing a systematic review.
Prerequisites
Participants should at least have completed their review protocol, developed and conducted their search strategy and begun data extraction and analysis.
Learning outcomes
In this course participants will be enabled to:
Teaching strategies
This course consists of online workshops with of a mixture of short presentations, small group activities and practical demonstrations using Cochrane software (RevMan Web). In addition, participants will have access to Cochrane Interactive Learning modules and will be required to complete a set of modules prior to workshops. Access to the Cochrane Interactive Learning modules will be made available for 4 weeks before and 4 weeks after the workshop and will be free of charge thanks to the support of Cochrane Training.
Facilitators
Prof. Valerie Smith, Professor of Midwifery, University College Dublin
Dr Nuala Livingstone, Senior Quality Assurance Editor, Cochrane Editorial & Methods Department
*If your type of ticket is sold out, please join the waitlist or contact us at esi@universityofgalway.ie
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1 (Monday) 10:00 am - 9 (Tuesday) 1:00 pm
ONLINE
04dec2:00 pm3:30 pmWebinar: Prof. Gordon Guyatt - Core GRADE: Part One2:00 pm - 3:30 pm ONLINE
To register, CLICK HERE GRADE is the world wide standard for rating certainty of evidence in systematic reviews and moving from evidence to recommendations in clinical
To register, CLICK HERE
GRADE is the world wide standard for rating certainty of evidence in systematic reviews and moving from evidence to recommendations in clinical practice guidelines. GRADE has, however, become too complicated and the over 50 authoritative GRADE papers are disorganized and increasingly difficult to navigate. In a series of 7 papers published in the BMJ, Gordon Guyatt has led a group of GRADE experts in produce Core GRADE, the essentials of the GRADE process for paired comparisons of interventions. The series provides systematic reviewers and guideline developers with a clear and straightforward guide that includes all they need to produce rigorous systematic reviews and guidelines based on the GRADE process.This first of two webinars will provide an overview of the Core GRADE approach and deal with issues choosing the target of certainty rating, and addressing issues of precision and risk of bias.
Speaker:
Gordon Guyatt is a McMaster University Distinguished Professor. His work has focused on Evidence-based Medicine. His work has included a key role in the creation of GRADE approach to systematic reviews and practice guidelines, and most recently a series of papers on the essentials of GRADE, Core GRADE in the BMJ. He has published over 1,000 papers many in the top journals and is one of the world’s most cited scientists.

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(Thursday) 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
ONLINE
The innovative ESI Fellowships give Fellows the opportunity to learn about evidence synthesis, with hands-on experience of how to plan, design, conduct and report an evidence synthesis. Fellows are placed virtually with world-class evidence synthesis centres and review teams in Ireland and internationally, on policy and practice relevant reviews.
We’re committed to improving how we gather, interpret, and share vast amounts of information, a process known as evidence synthesis. Our approach isn’t just about conducting research; it’s about improving the very methods we use to plan, conduct, and share the results of this process.
We work in many different research areas relevant to evidence synthesis and have a particularly strong focus on rapid reviews, knowledge translation and “studies within a review” (SWARs).
“ Reporting on health care topics can rely too much on asking experts or reporting the results of a single study…what would be much more useful to members of the public, especially when it comes to making decisions about their own health, is for people to understand how to situate health claims in the global body of evidence. “