Best Practice 1

a. Title of Practice

Academic program on Systematic literature review for Doctoral scholars and Post graduate students as a value added course in Doctoral program of DMIMS(DU)

b. The context that led to initiation of practice (100-200 words)

Doctoral programs are research intensive. Scholar has to undertake elaborate and focussed literature review (published and unpublished) to identify a tenable research question. Similarly, post graduate medical education is one step near to professional practice and must include training of students in generating credible evidence that improve patient outcomes. A scientific means of doing so is that of systematic literature review. Systematic literature review search, appraise and collate all relevant empirical evidence in order to provide a complete interpretation of research results. In view of the fact that both these academic programs must involve training in research methodology and systematic literature review for a meaningful contribution to scientific community, the Academic program on Systematic literature review for Doctoral scholars and Post graduate students was launched.

Since Systematic literature review is more exhaustive than a literature review as it includes both published and unpublished literature like unpublished studies, reports, dissertations, conference papers, ongoing clinical trials etc.; a structured credit based academic program was launched so that the project proposals are thoroughly informed by literature and scientific data.

c. Objectives of practice (50-60 words):

1. Systematically identify the Problem/Population, Intervention, Control and Outcomes
2. Crystallize Research question based on need and research gap
3. Identify & apply various screening parameters
4. Analyze and Interpret screened data for systematic review or meta-analysis
5. Apply suitable search strategies to extract relevant information and evidence
6. Design Research protocol with a robust scientific approach
7. Perform and publish systematic review and metanalysis

The course succeeds the workshop on research methodology, with 9 allocated credits. It is structured with following course outcomes and contents thereof, as stated below:
1. Describe the distinguishing characteristic of a systematic review
2. Decipher the relevance of P-I-C-O for search of relevant literature for gap analysis.
3. Choose relevant scientific publications , as filtered by PICO search
4. Formulate a research question that is feasible, Interesting, novel, ethical and relevant.
5. Frame a broad aim and measurable objectives of systematic review.
6. Recognize appropriate review techniques of potential applicability.
7. Prepare research protocol as per PRISMA-P checklist
8. Interpret search terms to apply for search strategy for search engines, especially PubMed and CENTRAL.
9. Perform search strategies by suitable application of search filters.
10. Import the search data to screening software
11. Screen the imported data for relevance and utility
12. Analyse critically and synthesize findings of key research studies that addresses the research question
13. Perform systematic review or meta-analysis of the selected screened data.
14. Prepare the manuscript of systematic review and/or metanalysis as per standard scientific norms.

The academic course on Systematic Literature Review has largely benefitted the project proposals for the two academic program in terms of :

1. Delivering a clear and comprehensive overview of available evidence on a given topic.
2. Help in identification of research gaps in our current understanding of a field.
3. Highlight methodological concerns in research studies that can be used to improve future work in the topic area.
4. Identification of questions for which the available evidence provide clear answers and thus for which further research is not necessary.

There have been two successive courses on systematic review till date. The total number of doctoral students trained are 195 and post graduate students are 126. Equal number of manuscripts on systematic review are submitted for publication. Till date 10 systematic reviews have been published and 45 systematic literature reviews have been published by the beneficiaries.