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Review Process

The COVID-19 Repository is the landing page for the evidence and rapid reviews conducted to support Saskatchewan decision-makers during the COVID pandemic. 

How to Participate

Dr. Gary Groot is leading the Saskatchewan COVID-19 Evidence Support Think Tank and is assisted by Dr. Bruce Reeder.  The Terms of Reference for the Think Tank outlines the structure of the Oversight Committee and the groups providing the support to the COVID-19 work. Dr. Groot connects directly to the Saskatchewan Health Authority's EOC to determine which questions the EOC team may have that require a search of the evidence and a synthesis, in order to make decisions regarding the COVID pandemic in Saskatchewan.  There are Standing Committees of the Oversight Committee which include Long Term Care, EOC (which subdivides into Laboratory, Pathways and PPE).  Additional teams were created to support work in vital areas such as Public Health, Epidemiology & Mapping, Indigenous Health, Therapeutics, Infectious Diseases, and Community Health.  Teams have been assembled based on the questions being posed and/or the patients/residents at risk and finding solutions to reduce spread and/or treatments. At present, not all teams are active. Some teams will need members to assist with generating questions and preparing the rapid reviews. If you are interested in participating, send an email to Dr. Gary Groot.

What is Being Produced

The repository (this webpage) contains a dashboard of the activity of the teams providing the evidence and syntheses of the COVID work. There are two main products produced:

Evidence Search Report (ESR)

Rapid Review Report (RR)

A database contains the questions posed, the evidence search reports and the rapid reviews in full text. The database is fully searchable. Links to the various questions posed by teams are placed on the repository that link to the database. The dashboard on the repository and on the home page of the database are generated from the contents of the database. 

Purpose:

To establish and maintain a single reliable source of existing and emerging evidence related to the COVID-19 pandemic within Saskatchewan that can be used by administrators, clinicians and policy makers. The goal is to link academic and clinical expertise to establish a repository and synthesis of new and emerging evidence. In particular, success would include a standard rapid assessment of the data to answer specific questions that require evidence support.

The process map above shows the structure and overall process.

The Process

The EOC or a team may have a question that once researched, will benefit the collection of reviews and help to provide further guidance on how to proceed during the COVID pandemic. In short form, here are the steps to proceed:

1. Consult with your team regarding the research question. Try to flesh out as much of the question as possible.

• Requester must be advised that they need to identify who is the contact person for the Knowledge Synthesis team to ensure they understand the scope, depth, and breadth of the question.  They will need to help formulate the questions to be searched.

2. Contact Dr. Groot and Dr. Reeder to review the priority and need for the research question. 
3.  Michelle Dalidowicz and Andreea Badea must be contacted to coordinate and assign the librarians and researchers to the research question.

• The Knowledge Synthesis team on that request must know if there is any flexibility in delivering the rapid review.
• Now that the urgency of the information has passed, teams are requested to consider a minimum of a three day turn-around for the evidence search and rapid review to be completed.  Superior quality of work will result with less urgent requests.

Poster submitted to Research Showcase 2020