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Global collaboration to address real-time evidence needs: a call to arms
As outlined by the HRB-supported Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges, COVID-19 has made clear how evidence should inform policy and personal decisions, and how that should continue post-pandemic. Here, Dr Nikita Burke, Programme Manager for Evidence Synthesis Ireland (ESI) and Cochrane Ireland, states the case using an example from Ireland’s evidence synthesis community.
The context
At ESI, Cochrane Ireland and the Health Research Board-Trials Methodolgy Research Network (HRB-TMRN), our usual work is to make evidence syntheses and clinical trials better designed, conducted and reported, for the benefit of patients, the public, practitioners, and policymakers. And when the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact first became clear in March 2020, the Department of Health (DoH) asked us to focus on prioritised knowledge gaps urgently needing evidence to support healthcare policy and practice.
This was even more pressing due to the exponential growth of information on COVID-19, often of varying quality. And despite some duplication of effort, there remained important evidence gaps. Clear, high-quality evidence was needed not just for policy-makers, but for citizens too, because they lacked access to trusted evidence. And to top it all off, a US president was claiming that injecting bleach could cure COVID-19…
The approach
Within our existing network, we had researchers with methodological skills who desperately wanted to help fight COVID, so we formed the Emergency Evidence Response Service (EERS). This team of 25 worked quickly and flexibly, providing methodological support for evidence needs from the likes of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Cochrane, and various Ministries of Health.
We could respond with agility and innovation thanks to support from our funders and NUI Galway. The underlying infrastructure had a strong foundation of expertise, experience and dedicated staff, with knowledge of the research landscape and, critically, established national and international networks. These infrastructures ensured their brands were a trusted and reliable source for research activities, with the highest operational standards.
We collaborated with international evidence networks teams producing and co-ordinating the best available evidence. These included:
- The Cochrane COVID-19 Working Group
- The WHO Evidence Collaborative for COVID-19
- The COVID-19 Evidence Network to support Decision-making (COVID-END).
Early in the pandemic, our families and friends were overwhelmed with information. Sometimes this was frightening, and sometimes it was dangerous misinformation spread via social media. In April 2020, we launched a website to counter false health claims called iHealthFacts.ie. This was to help people quickly and easily check the reliability of a health claim, empowering them with real-time evidence on a topic. We believe this was a valuable part of the Irish response to COVID-19. It addressed a need to counter harmful health misinformation and teach badly-needed critical thinking skills.
The results
We are proud that we held fast to our core value of capacity-building, which we embedded into all our activities despite the pandemic. This gave junior and senior colleagues the opportunity to lead and contribute to high-quality evidence syntheses and develop their international research networks and synthesis skills. Five people led Cochrane reviews for the first time during the pandemic, and 11 individuals were co-authors on rigorous, high-impact reviews. We were at the vanguard of rapid evidence, such as leading the development of Cochrane rapid reviews (including the first rapid scoping review and rapid qualitative evidence synthesis). These reviews acted as exemplars for future research.
By tapping into new and established networks, we could capitalise on ongoing work, support prioritised evidence needs and reduce research waste. Our outputs had important impact - informing five WHO guidelines - meaning our work had the potential to save lives on a global scale. In 2021, we supported the evidence requirements of the DoH’s Rapid Testing Expert Advisory Group, including commissioning three living evidence syntheses from colleagues in Canada and placing six clinical fellows with international review teams.
Locally, there was an outstanding sense of community, camaraderie and goodwill, as well as teamwork from the EERS team, who produced important, high quality work with great effort, time and commitment during such a difficult period. This collaboration built strong networks and reinforced our international reputation as a source of robust and reliable evidence and methodologists for future societal challenges.
On an international level, there was also a shared willingness to collaborate, increase the value of research and ensure the greatest possible impact for the work being done.
The future
It is vital Ireland’s evidence synthesis community builds on this to ensure we co-ordinate evidence provision, particularly when many countries share similar unmet evidence needs. We want to call upon and unite this community to ensure the best available evidence remains central to Ireland’s decision-making in health and social care, and that we deepen our global collaboration in response to societal challenges.
We also want to become a nation that places the right amount of importance on evidence, with the public trusting in science (as demonstrated by our vaccine uptake), to ensure that trustworthy evidence is used in healthcare and other societal challenges such as climate change and sustainable development, now and in the future.
Finally, we would encourage the research community to join us (the HRB, the HRB-TMRN, ESI and Cochrane Ireland) in support of the Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges, whose recommendations include:
- Building processes into government and into the United Nations (UN) system so that using evidence is a consistent feature in decision-making, just as political, economic, legal and communications considerations are always examined
- Better coordinating and collaborating within the evidence ecosystem
- Delivering trustworthy, accessible and living guidance covering critical issues faced by decision-makers.
About the author:
Dr Nikita Burke is Programme Manager for ESI and Cochrane Ireland. Dr Burke is responsible for managing and developing a world class evidence synthesis centre at NUI Galway. Along with the Executive Committee, Nikita is responsible for establishing, co-ordinating, managing, delivering and evaluating a programme of activities for ESI, as well as developing new strategies for its future. She is also responsible for delivering on primary evidence synthesis methodology research projects including; applying for funding, collaborating with international research teams, and achieving impact and dissemination objectives.
Learn more:
Read about the HRB’s support of the Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges
Visit the Cochrane Ireland website