Led by Professor Yemisi Takwoingi from the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Applied Health Research, Professor Amy Grove and Associate Professor Yen-Fu Chen from Warwick Evidence in Warwick Medical School, the West Midlands Evidence Synthesis Group (ESG) is one of nine new National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) commissioned ESGs.
The collaborative group also includes Dr Jason Schaub from the University of Birmingham’s School of Social Policy and Professor Danielle van der Windt and colleagues from the School of Medicine at Keele University.
Using the West Midlands ESG’s strengths in methodology innovation and evidence synthesis, the 5 years of funding will enable researchers to summarise and review the best available evidence in answer to key and urgent questions in health and social care.
The West Midlands ESG will collaborate widely, including with the Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre, the Applied Research Collaboration (ARC – West Midlands), as well as the Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research (CEDAR) and the Department of Statistics based within the University of Warwick.
Between 2023 and 2028, the group will produce up to five reviews per year to share with professionals, policymakers, and members of the public, with the aim to inform decision making and the best standard of care.
Decision makers, including health and social care professionals or policy makers, will be able to use the synthesised evidence that we produce to inform their decisions, which could have substantial downstream impact at personal and population levels. For example, our works often directly inform what treatments, diagnostic tests or ways of organising services work best and are good value for money for use in the NHS and social care. We are very excited to collaborate within this group to provide high quality synthesized evidence to health and social care professionals and policymakers which will inform their decision making.
Professor Yemisi Takwoingi, University of Birmingham
