Spotlight on Methods - Webinars of the European Cochrane Groups

Spotlight on Methods – Webinars of the European Cochrane Groups

In these one-hour live webinars, our experts present selected topics on the methods used to produce and utilise evidence synthesis, focusing on new methods and recent developments. The topics and presenters are chosen in turn by a European Cochrane Group. The webinars also provide a forum for discussing current methodological challenges in review work and exchanging ideas.

  • Participation is free of charge.
  • We use Zoom – further information on its use can be found here.
  • Registration is required.

Contact: Cochrane Germany, workshops@cochrane.de

Don’t miss any more webinar dates!
If you would like to be informed about new dates, simply register on the list of interested parties for events organised by Cochrane Germany and select Spotlight on Methods – Webinars of the European Cochrane Groups. We will then inform you in good time when online registration for our webinars opens.

Upcoming dates:

  • 21st April, 14:30–15:30 CEST
Topic: Assessing the Certainty of the Evidence by Means of Absolute Estimates of Effect: the New GRADE Approach
Speaker: Silvia Minozzi (MD, MSc) & Francesco Nonino (MD, MSc)
 
According to the new GRADE approach, "Certainty of the Evidence" refers to the confidence that effect estimates fall within a specific range or above a particular absolute threshold of interest.
The new GRADE GUIDANCE recommends to predefine decisional thresholds to determine trivial, small, moderate, and large effects (desirable as well as undesirable). These values are developed by determining an outcome-specific expected utility values and combining it with an empirically derived generic coefficient. The new GRADE method will allow systematic review authors assessing imprecision of any effect estimate by evaluating how its absolute value and its confidence intervals relate to predefined outcome-specific decisional thresholds, therefore moving forward from a limited, non-contextualised framework where imprecision was only assessed in relation to the null effect.
The webinar will address the theoretical framework by illustrating the GRADE guidance  42 (Wojtek et al 2025) and its application in a recently submitted Cochrane review of effect on disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.

Registration

In the pipeline:

  • 20th May, 13:00–14:00 CEST
Topic: Non-dissemination and dissemination bias in qualitative research
Speaker: Dr. Ingrid Töws
Selective non-dissemination of qualitative research findings can distort the evidence base for decision-making. Within the GRADE-CERQual approach, dissemination bias is recognised as a potential threat to confidence in qualitative evidence syntheses, but we still lack practical guidance on how to identify and assess it. This webinar presents on what we know about the issue so far and aims to sensitise reviewers for the potential dissemination bias in their qualitative evidence syntheses. 
  • 10th June, 15:00–16:00 CEST
Topic: Trustworthiness beyond traditional bias domains
Speaker: Sally Yaacoub, BS Pharm, MPH, PhD
Perceived trustworthiness of research may be influenced by factors beyond the traditional bias domains, including study-related characteristics, research context, and external circumstances. Identifying these factors is essential for gauging the credibility of non-randomized studies of interventions (NRSIs) as they are interpreted and used in systematic reviews, and for improving their design to ensure that they provide reliable evidence for decision-making. We will present findings from a survey of international experts and a scoping review of the literature that identified factors that influence the trustworthiness of NRSIs. These factors will provide a foundation for developing tools to improve NRSIs, ultimately strengthening evidence-based decision-making. 

Missed a webinar?
Make use of our archive of online methods webinars:

Cochrane Ireland: Dr. Jack Wilkinson "Too good to be true – Spotting problematic trials in systematic reviews" (26th February 2026)

Cochrane Austria: Prof. Dr. Matthias Briel, "Risk of bias assessment using ROBUST-RCT" (18th March 2026)