Workshop type: Training.

Objective: To facilitate understanding of methodological issues specific to EPOC reviews, and to highlight particularly challenging areas.

Summary:
This workshop will first give a brief overview of EPOC reviews and then will move quickly into an interactive session on issues particularly relevant and/or unique to EPOC reviews, including:
• dealing with multi-faceted interventions;
• handling multiple outcomes;
• assessing baseline differences;
• visual analysis and meta-regression analysis to explain heterogeneity and variation in effect size;
• incorporating aspects of contextual heterogeneity;
• search strategy tips and locating the grey literature;
• writing for policy makers as well as clinicians.

Participants will be provided with real examples and involved in working through specific exercises in some areas, while other issues will be addressed through group discussion.

Intended audience: (i) EPOC review authors; (ii) Authors of other reviews of complex interventions.

Technical level expected of participants: Intermediate.