Thanks for the reply Piersante
I agree, and I often use them for getting to grips with an unfamiliar
domain.
However, I should have made clear that I was talking about foreground
questions: specific populations, specific interventions and specific
outcomes.
It would save me a lot of time if there was a way to determine whether
or not a systematic review already exists. If I don't find one, then
that is really useful information. If I have to spend a day wading
through a load of narrative reviews dressed up to look like systematic
reviews, then I am less happy.
The problem I find is unless you have a systematic review to benchmark
against, you don't know how selective the narrative review is regarding
source data. And if you do have a systematic review, you don't need the
narrative review.
Anecdotally, I find that my clients are increasingly of the same view.
I think there is greater recognition of the impact of systematic reviews
as opposed to other types of article, and I think much of this is coming
from pressure from clinicians and commissioners who are being more
critical of the papers being used as evidence for a particular intervention.
cheers
d.
On 15/08/2011 18:27, Piersante Sestini wrote:
> On 11/08/15 13:37, Douglas Badenoch wrote:
>>
>> Then I can happily ignore them and spend more time looking at the good
>> stuff.
>>
>
> I disagree:
>
> Narrative reviews are the main source for grasping background
> knowledge. And you will never be able to ask foreground questions (and
> to understand a systematic review) without it.
>
> The classification of diseases, classes of drugs, mechanisms, outcomes
> etc, are all conceptual models that cannot be addressed only
> quantitatively.
>
> As new diseases, new treatments, new mechanisms are discovered,
> background questions are certainly not only for students.
>
> Therefore, trying to insure as much as possible that they don't become
> disguised commercials seems to me a valuable enterprise.
>
> That said, yes: trying to convince people that narrative reviews
> aren't an acceptable source of information for deciding about a
> clinical choice with a specific patient, is even more valuable.
>
>
>
> regards,
> Piersante Sestini
--
Mr Douglas Badenoch
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