Systematic Review: Concept and Tool Development with Application in the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Assessment Process
Systematic Review: Concept and tool development with application to the National Toxicology Program (NTP) and the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Assessment Processes.
There is growing interest within the environmental health community to incorporate systematic review methodology to increase transparency and objectivity of literature reviews of complex environmental questions. Systematic review uses a pre-established scientific framework to identify, select, assess, and summarize data from available studies to address specific scientific questions. The goal is to ensure the review is complete, unbiased, reproducible and transparent. The results of a systematic review can be used to inform decisions, reach conclusions, or identify research needs. Environmental health questions require the evaluation of a broad range of relevant data (e.g., human, animal, and “other relevant data” including mechanistic or in vitro studies), therefore systematic review methods must consider the diversity of data types and include procedures to integrate data across these evidence streams to reach conclusions regarding potential health effects from environmental exposures.
This session will provide a general overview of systematic review methods for addressing environmental questions and several software tools that facilitate the application of the workflow. Examples will be presented from both the National Toxicology Program’s Office of Health Assessment and Translation (OHAT) and the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) at EPA.