Systematic reviews and randomised trials: influencing public policy

Slide 1: Systematic reviews and randomised trials: influencing public policy 2 April 2008 Professor Mike Clarke UK Cochrane Centre Clinical Trial Service Unit, University of Oxford School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin

Slide 2: Evidence Based Health Care • Is not only about systematic reviews of randomised trials of the effects of interventions • These provide one component of evidence based health care: an estimate of the effects of treatment • However, reliable knowledge of which interventions are beneficial, which are harmful and which have little or no effect is vital to well informed decision making • Reliable knowledge comes from reliable evidence, which needs to minimise chance and bias

Slide 3:• What role should the findings of randomised trials and systematic reviews have in influencing public policy? • What role shoul