The People’s Review: a Systematic Review Powered by the People

It is difficult to make health decisions. We are exposed to a huge amount of information available 24/7 on our smartphones. It is easy to find all sorts of news, figures, and advice about healthcare. However, not everything is reliable. Our decisions should be based on the best evidence available — but how do we find it? Systematic reviews can help. A systematic review is a tool used by researchers, clinicians, and others to find all the evidence that has been published about a healthcare treatment. Systematic reviews use clear and careful steps to find relevant studies, assess the trustworthiness of the studies, and put together the results of those studies. This method gives patients the best evidence available about whether a healthcare treatment works or not. However, systematic reviews are complex and hard to understand. The People’s Review aims to give the public an opportunity to learn about systematic reviews, by doing a systematic review.

So, what is The People’s Review?

The People’s Review is an online project inviting members of the public to take charge of a systematic review. It will be a systematic review for the public, and importantly, by the public. We want to help the public understand what systematic reviews are, why they are important and how they can be used to make everyday health choices. What better way to do this this than by giving the public an opportunity to get their hands dirty and learn about systematic reviews, by doing a systematic review.

What will The People’s Review involve?

The People’s Review is broken down into eight separate stages that complement the key steps in a systematic review. The public will be invited to suggest and choose the review question, plan the review, do parts of the review, and decide how the results are shared. It will all take place online. We will help the public along the way with animated videos, training and interactive elements.

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