04 – Fostering collaboration by bringing together researchers with shared interests
The Evidence Synthesis Working Group is a collaboration of all nine primary care departments of the SPCR. The group has produced many high-quality systematic reviews that evaluate the benefits of interventions across a range of areas from end-of-life care to the impact of urban environments.
The group was started around 2016 by Professor Carl Heneghan at the University of Oxford to help evidence synthesis researchers meet and benefit from sharing ideas. This appealed to researchers across the SPCR, including Alyson Huntley, a senior research fellow in evidence synthesis at Bristol Medical School: “It seemed like a really good way of connecting with colleagues, which happens a little by other methods, but not quite in the same way. In particular, it was nice for me personally to connect with other primary care scientists.”
