Scientific article explains how Epistemonikos became the largest database of systematic reviews in health

Since it was launched in 2009, Epistemonikos Database has become the world’s largest repository of systematic reviews relevant for health decision-making. The details behind this achievement were recently published in BMC Medical Research Methodology, in an article explaining how this technological tool works and has evolved to become this worldwide used resource.

The article (that can be read here for free) explains the methods used to build the database and also the main results obtained until the time of submission in January 2020. At that moment, over 1.4 million registries had been screened in order to identify more than 300,000 systematic reviews that are now available in Epistemonikos Database.

The team behind this project is led by the evidence-based medicine expert Dr Gabriel Rada and the renowned software developer Daniel Pérez, co-founders of Epistemonikos Foundation. Many members of Epistemonikos Foundation are also co-authors of the scientific paper.

“Epistemonikos Database was launched 10 years ago”, starts Dr Rada, “but the challenge imposed by the avalanche of information that emerged during the last decade demanded the development of different technologies and innovations to identify all of the systematic reviews”.

When it comes to how the database works, Dr Rada explains that “we set a first layer of artificial intelligence that analyses what is recovered from multiple sources of evidence worldwide. Then, this information is passed to a network of more than 1000 collaborators for validation”. This approach, follows Rada, “allows us to identify all the evidence and make it accessible to everyone in a single place, through an easy-to-use search engine”.

The systematic methods applied by Epistemonikos’ team, the use of cutting-edge technology, the continuous innovation in workflows, and the engagement of a vast number of collaborators have allowed Epistemonikos to provide a unique tool to support informed decisions that will contribute to improving people’s health.

 

Check the article here:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-020-01157-x

COVID-19 L·OVE: the largest open repository of evidence on this pandemic

Over 6000, selected from over 2 million, are the articles you can find in our COVID-19 L·OVE, the first of our ‘Premium’ evidence collections including all systematic reviews, as well as every primary study and all other kinds of articles related to this pandemic (included and not included in the reviews).

 

Our COVID-19 L·OVE helps you find in seconds all the articles related to the pandemic, for free, with hopes of being able to open access for more people to all the evidence available about this disease and its different aspects. With this, we aim to encourage decision-making with responsibility and accurate information, that’s also up-to-date, and with minimal impact on time and resources.

 

The main objective of our L·OVE platform, created by Epistemonikos Foundation in 2017, is to bring evidence closer to people who have to make health decisions, making all the evidence available easier to access and screen, reducing general costs of evidence synthesis.

 

The majority of the great projects and international movements dedicated to responding to the pandemic are using L·OVE as a reliable source of scientific evidence. We are currently working with several of these projects and international networks, as well as important institutions from Canada, France and Norway. We are also coordinating new projects related to the pandemic with Brazil, South Korea, UK and USA.

 

Our L·OVE Platform, as well as our evidence collection on COVID-19, is meant to make easier and more efficient the elaboration of systematic reviews, a key process on health decision-making, as well as finding the answers to questions such as what is the best treatment or diagnostic test, among others. It also promotes collaborative and remote work , thus increasing participation of scientists and researchers from all over the world in these processes.

 

A good example of this, is the accomplishment that our Epistemonikos methods team, along with our L·OVE COVID-19 Working Group, composed by members of more than 25 organisations from Chile, Argentina, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, Norway and Spain. They have been able to complete 10 systematic reviews in approximately 8 weeks, for a task that normally takes 1 to 2 years for each review.

 

What is L·OVE?

 

L·OVE  is a digital tool that combines a series of technologies -including artificial intelligence-, with the efforts of a network of experts, to obtain and organise health evidence. It gathers information from our Epistemonikos Database, the largest worldwide when it comes to health evidence, and used by many people working on evidence synthesis. L·OVE stands for Living OVerview of Evidence, and it is called ‘Living’ because of its constant updating, incorporating new scientific evidence as soon as it is produced.