Synthesis, Economic Evaluation and Decision Science (SEEDS) Group

Our systematic reviews have informed health and social care policy and practice, as well as people’s decisions regarding care: 

• Zinc requirements and upper limits for infants and children aged 0-36 months.
• The effectiveness and safety of heat/cold therapy in adults with lymphoedema: a systematic review
• Costs of hospital care for strokes in India: a scoping review
• Dynamic contrast–enhanced computed tomography for the diagnosis of solitary pulmonary nodules: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
• Comparative accuracy and cost-effectiveness of dynamic contrast-enhanced CT and positron emission tomography in the characterisation of solitary pulmonary nodules.
• Routine vaginal examinations compared to other methods of assessing progress of labour: systematic review
• Domestic Violence Fatality Reviews/Domestic Homicide Reviews’ Processes and Recommendations
• The effectiveness of evidence-based healthcare educational interventions on healthcare professionals’ knowledge, skills, attitudes, professional practice and healthcare outcomes: systematic review and meta-analysis.

Health Economic Evaluations: We have produced and are conducting economic evaluations on a range of health technologies as part of clinical trials and modelling studies, including:

• Confirming the Mechanism of Motivational Interviewing Therapy after Stroke (COMMITS)
• Use post-operative antibiotics following surgery for patients with mandible fractures (MANTRA)
• Mental health prevention and promotion in general practice settings (MEND)
• Use of the Stroke Patient Concerns Inventory in Stroke Outpatients Clinics (SPaCIS)
• Symptoms, Trajectory, Inequalities and Management: Understanding Long-COVID to Address and Transform Existing Integrated Care Pathways (STIMULATE-ICP)
• Self-monitoring of blood pressure in pre-hypertension to reduce cardiovascular risk (REVERSE)

Our Rapid Conversions of Evidence Summaries (RaCES) and Rapid Conversions of Economic Evaluations (RaCEEs) Programmes, in association with the NIHR ARC-NWC, is a collaboration with health and social care professionals and the public to rapidly appraise and summarise evidence syntheses and economic evaluations to help inform practice, policy and people’s decisions about health and social care.

The programmes develop people’s understanding of the importance of research, the methods used, approaches to critical appraisal, interpreting and implementing findings into policy and practice, and knowledge transfer. Findings are published, implementation plans developed, and knowledge is mobilised.

View outputs from RaCES and RaCEEs projects.

We provide education and training through:

• Online resources available via our work with the ARC-NWC.
• Formal courses in systematic reviews and health economics
• RaCES and RaCEEs programmes which aim to provide the skills on how to carry out and publish a rapid commentary of an existing evidence synthesis or economic evaluation
• Research methods seminars through our ARC-NWC MIDAS methodology sub-groups
• PhD and Professional Doctorate Supervision; and,
• Internships for RaCES and RaCEEs projects.

Through our work as part of the NIHR ARC-NWC MIDAS Theme, we collaborate on developing and delivering a strategy to mainstream equity in research in health and social care

Find out more about our mainstream equity for health and social care research.