PulsE Archive
Quarterly eBulletin of public health and health services systematic reviews
Welcome to the PulsE eBulletin archive.
PulsE is a quarterly eBulletin that provides information about newly published systematic reviews of public health and health services interventions. The reviews are drawn from a range of open-access sources and are selected for inclusion in the eBulletin because of their relevance to local health policy priorities.
This web page contains an archive of all past issues of PulsE. The current issue can be accessed here.
Click here to subscribe to PulsE .
About systematic reviews
Systematic reviews aim to determine the effectiveness of interventions for a specific health issue, and are conducted by locating, appraising, and synthesising evidence from as many relevant scientific studies as possible.
Systematic reviews differ from other types of reviews because they use an explicit, transparent and replicable design which makes them more comprehensive, less prone to bias, and more reliable. Instead of reflecting the views of the authors, or being based on only a partial selection of the literature, they include all known references to trials of a particular intervention and a comprehensive summary of the available evidence.
Because systematic reviews can separate redundant and irrelevant findings from useful findings, they are potentially a valuable source of information for decision makers. They can help to balance information about the benefits and harms of different strategies, and provide insights into the conditions under which interventions are more likely to be effective.
Further reading:
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Lavis J, Davies H, Oxman A, Denis J-L, Golden-Biddle K, Ferlie E. Towards systematic reviews that inform health care management and policy-making. J Health Serv Res Policy 2005;10(Suppl 1):35-48.
- Petticrew M. Presumed innocent: Why we need systematic reviews of social policies. Am J Prev Med 2003;24(3S):2-3.
- Sheldon TA. Making evidence synthesis more useful for management and policy-making. J Health Serv Res Policy 2005;10(Suppl 1):1-5.
- The Cochrane Library: www.thecochranelibrary.org
How are reviews identified for the PulsE eBulletin?
A range of health and social organisations that commission or conduct systematic reviews of population health and health services-related interventions and strategies have been identified. These include:
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The Campbell Collaboration (http://www.campbellcollaboration.org/)
- Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/index.htm)
- The Cochrane Collaboration (http://www.thecochranelibrary.org/)
- Effective Public Health Practice Project (http://old.hamilton.ca/phcs/ephpp/ReviewsPortal.asp)
- Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Coordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre) (http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk)
- health-evidence.ca (http://health-evidence.ca)
- National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (http://www.nice.org.uk/)
Regular searches are conducted to identify reviews newly published by these organisations, along with systematic reviews published in academic journals.
Reviews that are relevant to health policy priorities for NSW (as outlined in documents such as the NSW State Health Plan and Healthy People NSW: Improving the Health of the Population) are identified and summarised for inclusion in the e-Bulletin.