Systematic Reviews for Complex Interventions in Medicine and Public Health

4-Day Certified Course

06 - 09 May 2026

► Systematic Reviews for Complex Interventions in Medicine and Public Health

 

Course Overview

The 4-day in-person HTADS course "Systematic Reviews for Complex Interventions in Medicine and Public Health" is designed to provide an introduction to advanced methods for conducting systematic reviews and evidence synthesis, with a particular focus on complex public health and medical interventions. A complex intervention is typically characterized by multiple interacting components, variability in implementation and context, and the targeting of multiple outcomes or levels of influence. Most real-world public health interventions and health-related policies are likely to be complex. Examples include tobacco control policies, mask mandates, sugar taxes, and rehabilitation programs after stroke. These interventions often act as “events in systems,” where their effects are strongly shaped by the context in which they are implemented and the systems they interact with.

Topics covered in the course include the nature of complexity in interventions and the resulting challenges for conducting evidence syntheses, the use of logic models, challenges in searching for evidence, an overview of non-randomized studies of intervention effects, risk of bias assessment using ROBINS-I and ROB 2, causal inference issues, as well as approaches to evidence synthesis both with and without meta-analysis. The course will be interactive and practical, combining lectures, group discussions, exercises, and hands-on tutorials.

 

Target Audience

The course is aimed at attendees with basic knowledge of evidence synthesis. Ideally, but not necessarily, participants have previous experience with conducting systematic reviews.
The course is suitable for anyone with an interest in flexible approaches to evidence synthesis and review methodology, including scientists, health care professionals, and public health professionals within and beyond the public health service, providers in medicine and nursing, consultants, contract research organizations, pharmaceutical and device manufacturers, regulatory and health technology assessment agencies, payers, and professionals across a wide range of industries, as well as PhD, medical, and master’s students.

 

Course Pre-requisites:

Course language is English. Both native and non-native English speaking scientists are welcome. No software needed.

 

Course Topics and Structure

 

Day 1 introduces the concept of complex interventions and explores what makes them particularly challenging for systematic reviews. Participants will learn about the multiple dimensions of complexity, including variability in components, interventions acting as events in systems, and the context-dependency of effects. The first day also covers the use of logic models as tools to understand and represent complexity in a structured way. Through practical exercises, participants will begin developing logic models for selected public health or medical interventions. In addition, the course will explore alternative forms of evidence synthesis beyond systematic reviews, suitable for addressing specific types of research questions.

Day 2 focuses on the challenges and solutions in searching for evidence on complex interventions. Participants will explore strategies for identifying relevant studies, especially when interventions are not easily captured by standard database searches.
Furthermore, Day 2 includes an overview of non-randomized studies of intervention effects (NRSI), including designs from social sciences and econometrics, such as difference-in-differences, interrupted time series, and regression discontinuity. These designs – in principle – allow for causal inference by controlling for known and unknown confounding when evaluating the effect of complex, real world interventions.

Day 3 is dedicated to assessing the risk of bias in studies of complex interventions. Participants are introduced to the use of ROB 2 for assessing risk of bias in (cluster) randomized controlled trials, and introduced to ROBINS-I for evaluating NRSI. Both tools will be applied in hands-on sessions, focusing on the reflection of potential confounders, the conceptualization of a target trial, as well as the practical use and interpretation of the tool.

Day 4 explores analytical methods for evidence synthesis. This entails addressing challenges when conducting meta-analyses for complex interventions, with a focus on transforming effect measures and interpreting heterogeneity. Given the heterogeneity of complex interventions, meta-analysis is commonly not feasible or appropriate. Therefore, participants are introduced to methods for Synthesis Without Meta-analysis (SWiM). Participants will learn about specific techniques, including vote-counting based on direction of effect and p-value synthesis, as well as visual display options including harvest plots and direction of effect plots.

 

Course Documentation

Certificates will be provided to all participants after the course. Students will be accredited 5 ECTS for successfully completing Assignment as well as their attendance and active participation during the attendance time of the course.