Systematic Review Data Repository (SRDR) 2.0 for Digitally Enabling Systematic Review Data

In 1997, AHRQ launched an initiative to promote evidence-based practice in everyday care through establishment of the Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) Program. Since then, the EPCs have been reviewing all relevant scientific literature on a wide spectrum of clinical and health services topics to produce various types of evidence reports. This program directly addresses AHRQ’s abovementioned mission to promote health care quality improvement by conducting synthesis and dissemination of existing scientific evidence for use by various stakeholders. Majority of these evidence reports are systematic reviews (SRs), which are used as evidence bases for clinical practice guidelines, research agenda, healthcare coverage, and other health related policies. Performing SRs is costly in time, labor, and money. Moreover, there is an increasing expectation of quicker turnaround in producing SRs to accommodate the fast moving pace of innovations and new scientific discoveries in healthcare. Some SRs overlap or are replicated; independent teams of SR producers often extract data from the same studies, resulting in replication of work. Current methodology makes it difficult to harness and reuse previous work when updating SRs. An open-access repository of extracted data from primary studies could improve the efficiency of conducting SRs by sharing this extracted data for SR updates or new SRs. A repository of such data would also greatly facilitate methodological research to improve the conduct of SR and primary research. It can foster collaboration, transparency, and reliability among research groups who contribute data. It can also provide valuable information to patients and stakeholders who view the deposited data. In an effort to reduce the economic burden of conducting SRs, the EPC program undertook development of a collaborative, Web-based repository of systematic review data called the Systematic Review Data Repository (SRDR). This resource serves as both an archive and data extraction tool, shared among organizations and individuals producing SRs worldwide, enabling the creation of a central database of SR data. This database is collaboratively vetted, freely accessible, and integrates seamlessly with reviewers’ existing workflows, with the ultimate goal of facilitating the efficient generation and update of evidence reviews, and thus speeding and improving policy-making with regards to health care. The SRDR project aims to achieve the following goals: 1) Create online easy-to-use Web-based tools for conducting systematic reviews to facilitate extraction of data from primary studies; 2) Develop an open-access searchable archive of key questions addressed in systematic reviews; 3) Maintain a public repository of primary study data including provision of technical support for repository users; and 4) Develop a process for making summary data from systematic reviews digitally shareable to end-users.

The latest form for Systematic Review Data Repository (SRDR) 2.0 for Digitally Enabling Systematic Review Data expires 2022-10-31 and can be found here.