Reference Librarian Mary Lou Klem, PhD, recently attended a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland as a member of a research team developing a series of systematic reviews. The team, funded by the Brocher Foundation, is an interdisciplinary group of health care researchers from the United States and Europe, including faculty from the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing; Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine; University of Basel Institute of Nursing Science; KU Leuven Center for Health Services and Nursing Research; Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana; Kantonsspital St. Gallen, Switzerland; and Hannover Medical School. The goal of the group is to complete a series of systematic reviews and meta-analyses examining the relationships between selected psychosocial factors and clinical outcomes after solid organ transplantation.
Invited to join the group shortly after its inception in December 2011, Klem oversaw the design and completion of a series of comprehensive literature searches in bibliographic databases such as PubMed and EMBASE. These searches produced the “raw data” (original research studies) that the group will use to complete the systematic reviews. At the January meeting, the group reviewed their progress to date, finalized a code book that will be used to extract critical information from studies found during the literature searches, and received training from team members Susan Sereika, PhD and Sandra Engberg, PhD, RN, CRNP, FAAN in the theory and practice of effect size calculation. An overview of the group’s work to date will be presented in April 2013 at the Joint 3rd European Symposium of the International Transplant Nurses Society and 5th Congress of the Italian Society for Safety and Quality in Transplantation.
For information on how HSLS librarians can assist you in the design and completion of a systematic review, please refer to the Systematic Review Support Web site or send an e-mail to Ask a Librarian.
~ Mary Lou Klem