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Background
 

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Carefully conducted systematic reviews and meta-analyses are the gold standard for establishing the effects of interventions. Consequently, they have to be performed in the same rigorous and systematic manner as clinical studies. There are several reasons why it is essential to manage the review process systematically:
  • No loss or distortion of information
  • Possibility to manage the large amount of information
  • Efficient conduct of the review and no duplication of work
  • Accountability and reproducibility of the review process and results
  • Possibility to update the review when new evidence becomes available
The process of performing a systematic review and meta-analysis is complex. Usually, several people are involved, sometimes across countries, and large amounts of data have to be managed including administrative data, bibliographic information, documents, and data extracted from study reports included in the review. In detail, the process of performing a systematic review includes the following steps:
  1. Developing the review protocol
  2. Searching reports e.g. literature search in Medline
  3. Scanning for duplicates of reports
  4. Screening of reports (Title/abstract evaluation)
  5. Consensus on screening
  6. Eligibility of reports (Fulltext evaluation)
  7. Consensus on eligibility
  8. Assigning reports to studies and eligibility of studies
  9. Consensus on study assignment
  10. Extracting data from studies
  11. Consensus on extracted data
  12. Import of data into dedicated software
  13. Narrative Synthesis
  14. Statistical Synthesis
Given the complexity of the process it is obvious that it is susceptible to various errors. Database systems have the potential to help reviewers to manage the review process and to minimize errors.

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