Numbering Code	P-PUB01 8K036 LE90	Year/Term	2022 ・ Intensive, year-round
Number of Credits	1	Course Type	Lecture
Target Year	Professional degree students	Target Student
Language	English	Day/Period	Intensive
Instructor name	FURUKAWA TOSHIAKI (Graduate School of Medicine Professor) SAHKER, ETHAN KYLE (Graduate School of Medicine Assistant Professor) LUO YAN (Graduate School of Medicine Program-Specific Assistant Professor)
Outline and Purpose of the Course	[Overall objective] The students will learn the methodology of a systematic review and pairwise meta-analysis, and write up the (introduction and) methods section(s) of a protocol on a PICO of their own choice. The course will be conducted in English. The protocol to be submitted should be in English. The course is limited to MCR students but is optional. Only those MCR students who wish to write up a protocol are accepted. [Overall structure of the course] The students will be divided into five groups. Each group will summarize and present the allocated chapters from the Cochrane Handbook. The faculty will comment and supplement the lecture by the students. After this lecture, each student will add relevant sections and subsections according to the RevMan format for the Methods section of a systematic review protocol for interventions. [in response to the COVID-19 pandemic] It is very hard to predict the level of the pandemic in September as of the writing of this syllabus. Depending on the level of the pandemic and/or the readiness of the students, there remains a possibility that this course will be held online.]
Course Goals	[Expectations for the students] 1. Each group must read, summarize and present approximately 50 pages of the Handbook. The faculty will announce the groups in July, and each group can start working on their presentation before the course takes place in September. 2. The course takes place in the morning. Each student is expected to work on his protocol in the afternoon. The group members who have a presentation the following day may also wish to brush up their presentation. 3. After the entire course is over, each student must present their completed protocol (Methods section is mandatory. Introduction section is optional) within two weeks. The faculty will then return the commented and edited protocol.
Schedule and Contents	[Schedule] No. Date Period Topic By: 1 Fri, Aug 26 1st period (8:45-10:15) Introduction to evidence synthesis Prof Furukawa 2 Fri, Aug 26 2nd period (10:30-12:00) Presentation of proposed PICOs by students All students 3 Fri, Aug 26 3rd (13:15-14:30) Handbook Chapters 1-3 Group 1 4 Mon, Aug 29 1st period (8:45-10:15) Presentation by students on “Criteria for considering studies for this review” All students 5 Mon, Aug 29 2nd period (10:30-12:00) Handbook Chapters 4-5 Group 2 6 Tue, Aug 30 1st period (8:45-10:15) Presentation by students on “Search methods for identification of studies” and “Data collection and analysis – Selection of studies, Data extraction and management” All students 7 Tue, Aug 30 2nd period (10:30-12:00) Handbook Chapters 7-8 Group 3 8 Wed, Aug 31 1st period (8:45-10:15) Presentation by students on “Data collection and analysis – Assessment of risk of bias in included studies, Assessment of reporting bias” All students 9 Wed, Aug 31 2nd period (10:30-12:00) Handbook Chapters 6&9 Group 4 Handbook Chapters 10 Group 5 10 Thu, Sept 1 1st period (8:45-10:15) Presentation by students on “Data collection and analysis – Measures of treatment effect, Unit of analysis issues, Dealing with missing data, Assessment of heterogeneity Data synthesis Subgroup analysis and investigation of heterogeneity Sensitivity analysis” All students 11 Thu, Sept 1 2nd period (10:30-12:00) Wrap up All students
Evaluation Methods and Policy	All evaluations will be based on the submitted protocol after the course.
Course Requirements	Statistics and Epidemiology courses recommended. Limited to MCR students (elective for MCR students).
Study outside of Class (preparation and review)	Please be advised that much work both before and after the class will be required.
Textbooks	Textbooks/References	Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions, 2nd edition , Julian P. T. Higgins et al, (Wiley) Essential textbook (the whole course will be based on this textbook): Julian P. T. Higgins, James Thomas, et al. (2019) Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions, 2nd edition (Wiley Cochrane Series), Wiley-Blackwell Essential software (the protocol will follow the format in this software): ReviewManager 5 https://training.cochrane.org/online-learning/core-software-cochrane-reviews/revman