Grant: New Investigator Salary Award - PA: Drug Safety and Effectiveness - Drug Safety

Sometimes many randomized controlled trials examine the same treatment among similar patients but find different results. When this occurs, researchers may use an approach called a knowledge synthesis. Knowledge synthesis allows the combination of many different studies to come up with an answer to a research question. These methods are also used to find out more information when there is little known about a particular research area. Within healthcare, researchers have focused on the traditional systematic review method for knowledge synthesis. The traditional systematic review method places a strong emphasis on experimental studies, such as randomized controlled trials. However, sometimes a randomized controlled trial is not possible because the treatment can potentially harm the patient. Less attention has been given to other knowledge synthesis methods that can be used to summarize the results from studies such as interviews and focus groups. These types of studies provide rich details that may not be captured in a randomized controlled trial, including patient values, compliance, and preferences. Through this scoping review, we will be able to create a chart outlining all the different types of knowledge syntheses across different fields and be able to come up with a map that can be used by researchers to decide which type of knowledge synthesis to use for a particular research question. We will also begin putting together a manual on the methods for the knowledge synthesis methods other than the traditional systematic review. These results will be useful to students, teachers, researchers, companies that do knowledge syntheses, companies that fund knowledge syntheses, and journals that publish knowledge syntheses.