Accessing Evidence-Based Resources and Conducting Systematic Reviews in Resource-Limited Settings

Background: We aim to report the outcomes of a 5-day Hinari and systematic review (SR) training workshop in CITY, COUNTRY, and a workshop series continued via web-conferencing. This training served as a pilot to develop a robust training model that provides both training in accessing high quality literature to support evidence-based practice (EBP), and the use and synthesis of evidence to promote publishing of systematic reviews from researchers and librarians in resource limited settings.

Description: Methodological and domain expertise are required for established methods for the comprehensive gathering and synthesizing of research. Resource-limited settings require access and the ability to use resources such as those available via Hinari - the World Health Organization program that provides free/low cost access to peer-reviewed resources to developing countries. Due to financial challenges over the last decade, there have been limited opportunities for such specialized training sessions for healthcare professionals in COUNTRY.
To extend previous workshops that focused separately on access to resources and conducting SRs, the authors held a holistic 5-day Hinari/SR training, followed by on-going webinars to support workshop participants as they continued to develop SRs. This paper will discuss instructional content, survey outcomes, and how the two parts of the workshops were aligned to support the development of SRs in resource-limited environments.

Conclusion: Forty health professionals were trained including researchers, clinicians, faculty, and librarians. Post-workshop survey results provide evidence that the workshop was well-received, with the majority of participants rating all modules to be relevant and useful. Results of a 6-month follow up survey will be included as well.