A systematic review is a literature review focused on a research question that tries to identify, appraise, select and synthesize all high quality research evidence relevant to that question. Systematic reviews of high-quality randomized controlled trials are crucial to evidence-based medicine. An understanding of systematic reviews and how to implement them in practice is becoming mandatory for all professionals involved in the delivery of health care. Besides health interventions, systematic reviews may concern clinical tests, public health interventions, social interventions, adverse effects, and economic evaluations.
Systematic reviews are not limited to medicine and are quite common in other sciences where data are collected, published in the literature, and an assessment of methodological quality for a precisely defined subject would be helpful. Other fields where systematic reviews are used include psychology, nursing, dentistry, public health, occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy, educational research, sociology, business management, environmental management and conservation biology.
Read more about Systematic Review: Characteristics, Cochrane Collaboration, Strengths and Weaknesses, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words systematic and/or review:
“Every nation ... whose affairs betray a want of wisdom and stability may calculate on every loss which can be sustained from the more systematic policy of its wiser neighbors.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“The thanksgiving of the old Jew, “Lord, I thank Thee that Thou didst not make me a woman,” doubtless came from a careful review of the situation. Like all of us, he had fortitude enough to bear his neighbors’ afflictions.”
—Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)