Health executives and policy makers find themselves under increasing pressure to demonstrate a high quality, evidence-based justification for health programs, policy design and service reform.
To date, methodological options with which to find and assess evidence have presented a limited choice – the explicit, rigorous, and narrow focus of the Systematic Review, or the broad, descriptive, less bias-proof Narrative Review.
This Perspectives Brief looks to pragmatically ‘review’ the reviews – providing an outline of their purpose, process, strengths, and limitations, and highlighting the appropriate search environment for each. It presents decision-makers with a pragmatic guide to inform resource allocation and evidence base in health care and health system research, practice, and policy development.