Attention A T users. To access the menus on this page please perform the following steps. 1. Please switch auto forms mode to off. 2. Hit enter to expand a main menu option (Health, Benefits, etc). 3. To enter and activate the submenu links, hit the down arrow. You will now be able to tab or arrow up or down through the submenu options to access/activate the submenu links.

Center for Care Delivery and Outcomes Research

Menu
Menu
Quick Links
Veterans Crisis Line Badge
My healthevet badge
 

Minneapolis Evidence Synthesis Core

Background: The Minneapolis VA is an international leader in conducting and disseminating systematic reviews to assist health care users provide evidence-based care. Our Minneapolis VA Evidence Synthesis Core is comprised of clinicians and researchers collaborating across topics and methods. The Minneapolis VA Evidence Synthesis and Dissemination Center (MEDIC) is co-led by Timothy Wilt, MD, MPH and Denise Duan-Porter, MD, PhD. The core receives funding through the multiple sources including the VA Health Services Research and Development Evidence Synthesis Program (ESP) to conduct systematic reviews of the effectiveness and comparative effectiveness and harms of high impact healthcare topics for VA. Our Evidence Synthesis Center also conducts evidence reports funded by national medical societies development of clinical practice guidelines and is a designated American College of Physicians Center for Evidence Reviews (ACP-CER). We are partners with the University of Minnesota School of Public Health as the AHRQ-funded Minnesota Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC). Additional evidence synthesis and methods work is often conducted in collaboration with investigators in urologic diseases through Cochrane Urology, Philipp Dahm, MD, MSC, Coordinating Editor (Urology Section). Additionally, Drs. Dahm and Shahnaz Sultan, MD, MSC are international leaders in evidence review methodology. They are members of the US Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) Network that provides national training, mentorship, education and collaboration in systematic reviews and evidence-based health care.

Highlights:

  • We published a report Assessing the Effectiveness of Complex Interventions to Meet the Needs of VA Stakeholders in a Medical Care supplement on Evidence Synthesis in a Learning Health Care System.
  • Our ESP reports on Implementation of evidence-based psychotherapies for pain; Screening for Hepatocellular Carcinoma in At-Risk Adults; Use of Medical Scribes in Emergency, Cardiology and Orthopedic Departments as well as Nursing Home Staffing Models have informed practice and policy within VA, were presented as VA Cyberseminars and included in Inspector General Reports.
  • Shared Decision Making for Lung Cancer Screening, Prolotherapy for Musculoskeletal Pain, Extended Reality for Chronic Pain, Antimicrobial Stewardship in Outpatient Settings.
  • Our VA-ESP conducted COVID-19 reviews on remdesivir for adults with COVID-19 (used by the ACP for guidance statements) and published in Annals of Internal Medicine (AIM), Post-Acute COVID-19 Major Organ Damage and Long-COVID. These were presented to VA clinical and operations leadership.
  • We are collaborators on the VA-Long COVID Integrated Patient Team Workstream, National Research Action Plan and the MVAMC Practice Based Research Network.
  • Our ACP-CER reports on the Effectiveness and Cost Effectiveness of new Diabetes Medications was published in AIM and used for ACP clinical guidelines. Our review and network meta-analysis is examining the comparative effects and cost-effectiveness of pharmacologic treatments of Menopausal Vasomotor Symptoms.
  • We conducted an evidence review evaluating medical and surgical therapies for benign prostatic hyperplasia to inform American Urological Association clinical guidelines.
  • Ongoing or recently completed AHRQ-EPC reports include: Nutritional Interventions for Cancer Patients with or at risk for Malnutrition, Gynecologic Syndromes of Menopause, Patient and System Interventions to Reduce Racial Ethnic Health Disparities and Trauma Informed Care.
  • Workshops and manuscripts by members of the US GRADE network, Minnesota AHRQ-EPC and Minneapolis VA-ESP have advanced state-of-the art methodology for evidence synthesis and guideline development and expanded the number of individuals trained-in, conducting and using evidence-based health care.

For more information about the VA Health Services Research and Development Evidence Synthesis Program, click below:
https://www.hsrd.research.va.gov/publications/esp/
 
For information about the AHRQ Evidence-based Practice Centers, click below:
https://www.ahrq.gov/research/findings/evidence-based-reports/overview/index.html
 
For information on the US GRADE Network, click below:
http://us.gradeworkinggroup.org/
 
For more information about Cochrane Urology, click below:
https://urology.cochrane.org/