No. 254 · Evidence · Systems
Systematic Review
To know what the evidence says, gather all of it by rules set in advance.
In the Almanac
“Does therapy work?”, 1977 · “Tamiflu”, 2014
Both stories in full, three ways to use it and where it misleads.
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Questions
What is Systematic Review?
A Systematic Review gathers every relevant study on a question, judges each against the same rules, and combines the results. It protects us from cherry-picking the research we like or the headline we happened to remember.
How do you use Systematic Review?
Use it before big health, money or work decisions. Set your criteria first, collect evidence from many independent sources, include the dull results along with the dramatic ones, and let the overall pattern guide you. Remember that a review is only as good as the evidence it can find.
When does Systematic Review matter?
Systematic Review is one of the 68 mental models for evidence, the situations where you ask: Is this really true? Within that, it belongs to “Testing a claim”, alongside False Negative, False Positive and Falsification.
What is an example of Systematic Review?
Two stories show it at work: Does therapy work? (1977) and Tamiflu (2014). Both are told in full in The Mental Models Daily Almanac, which has two stories for each of its 365 models.
Which mental models are related to Systematic Review?
Meta-Analysis, Publication Bias and Anecdotal Evidence. Systematic Review itself comes from systems.