Article type
Abstract
"Background: The COVID-19 pandemic evidenced the need to unite efforts to produce timely, collaborative evidence synthesis aimed at supporting decision-making in public health systems. The Unit of Evidence and Deliberation for Decision Making (UNED) of the University of Antioquia, has collaborated with initiatives of McMaster Health Forum and COVID-END to assist Canadian decision-makers in responding to these challenges.
Objectives: To describe the UNED experience adopting living methodologies to evaluate the effectiveness of different public health and social measures (PHSM), such as vaccines, ventilation, and cleaning and disinfecting, to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 and other respiratory infectious diseases in non-healthcare community settings, to support evidence-informed decision-making.
Methods: Living Evidence Synthesis (LES) methods were adopted, to produce continuously updated synthesis, incorporating new relevant evidence as it becomes available. Adaptations have been made in processes of search, selection, and extraction of the information, both in workflows and incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) tools, when possible.
Results: We adopted the LES methodologies to evaluate the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines to reduce transmission and key outcomes such as infection, severe disease, and death in children and adolescents; until March 29, 2023 (22nd report of this LES) we had identified 23,361 reports and included 43 studies, with results informing about the effectiveness for multiple vaccines for prevention of transmission and key outcomes, in different age groups and within different variants of concern periods. New LES have been developed and are continually updated to address questions about the effectiveness of different ventilation strategies and cleaning and disinfection strategies to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 and other respiratory infections in non-healthcare community settings. These LES have supported decision-making by the Public Health Agency of Canada and are also available for consultation on the McMaster Health Forum website.
Conclusion: LES have proved to be a valuable tool to summarize the best available evidence on PHSMs for the reduction of COVID-19 transmission in a timely way, ensuring that decision-makers can quickly adapt their approaches informed by evidence. These practices are an example of the adoption of new methodologies for evidence generation to support public health decisions.
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Objectives: To describe the UNED experience adopting living methodologies to evaluate the effectiveness of different public health and social measures (PHSM), such as vaccines, ventilation, and cleaning and disinfecting, to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 and other respiratory infectious diseases in non-healthcare community settings, to support evidence-informed decision-making.
Methods: Living Evidence Synthesis (LES) methods were adopted, to produce continuously updated synthesis, incorporating new relevant evidence as it becomes available. Adaptations have been made in processes of search, selection, and extraction of the information, both in workflows and incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) tools, when possible.
Results: We adopted the LES methodologies to evaluate the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines to reduce transmission and key outcomes such as infection, severe disease, and death in children and adolescents; until March 29, 2023 (22nd report of this LES) we had identified 23,361 reports and included 43 studies, with results informing about the effectiveness for multiple vaccines for prevention of transmission and key outcomes, in different age groups and within different variants of concern periods. New LES have been developed and are continually updated to address questions about the effectiveness of different ventilation strategies and cleaning and disinfection strategies to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 and other respiratory infections in non-healthcare community settings. These LES have supported decision-making by the Public Health Agency of Canada and are also available for consultation on the McMaster Health Forum website.
Conclusion: LES have proved to be a valuable tool to summarize the best available evidence on PHSMs for the reduction of COVID-19 transmission in a timely way, ensuring that decision-makers can quickly adapt their approaches informed by evidence. These practices are an example of the adoption of new methodologies for evidence generation to support public health decisions.
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