This session summarizes the state of the science on methods for systematic reviews of complex interventions. The session builds and continues a dialog initiated by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (NICE) in a symposium in Rockville, Maryland, in June 2015. The symposium identified an array of approaches for scoping reviews, creating appropriate analytic frameworks, and analyzing data. It also identified a set of reporting elements important for systematic review. Colloquium speakers will offer a synthesis based on experiences of systematic reviewers supported by varied institutions such as AHRQ, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, and Cochrane. They will reflect on best practices and appropriate conditions for the use of tools and approaches for systematic reviews of complex interventions, The resulting conversation will aid a global audience of systematic reviewers of complex interventions in improving the utility and rigor of their reviews.

Chair: Meera Viswanathan, Director, RTI-UNC Evidence-based Practice Center

Speakers:
Jane Noyes, Professor of Health and Social Services Research and Child Health, Bangor University
Scoping the Review

Mary Butler, Co-Director, Minnesota Evidence-based Practice Center
Analytic Frameworks for Complex Interventions

Meera Viswanathan, Director, RTI-UNC Evidence-based Practice Center
Conceptual Overview of Challenges in Analytic Approaches

Terri Pigott, Interim Dean, School of Education, Loyola University Chicago
Current Strategies for Synthesis in Analytic Approaches

Meera Viswanathan, Director, RTI-UNC Evidence-based Practice Center
Critical Reporting Elements for Research Publications and Systematic Reviews of Complex Interventions

Peter Tugwell, Director, Centre for Global Health, Bruyère Research Institute, University of Ottawa
This presentation will provide a summary of promising approaches that require further testing to identify best practices and continued areas of uncertainty that will require new methodological approaches.