Evidence Aid’s COVID-19 project: March 2021 update

If you would like to receive these updates directly, please contact me (callen@evidenceaid.org). Anyone with questions about our work should also contact me.

This is the 30th update on Evidence Aid’s COVID-19 project and covers the month up to 31 March 2021.

Highlights:

·      We are now almost one year into the project and have prepared more than 500 short, plain language summaries covering almost 800 systematic reviews relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact.

·      The summaries are available in English, with translations into other languages including Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

·      All the summaries are freely accessible here along with links to the full reviews.

·      Given the proliferation of reviews on some topics, we are switching more of our focus to developing combined summaries, which present the findings from multiple systematic reviews, making it easier to see the evidence around a single topic.

·      Alongside the preparation of the summaries, and their publication on the Evidence Aid website, we continue to promote them through our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram social media feeds (see below, if you’d like to follow us or share the posts).

 Systematic review summaries: 507 summaries are now available on the website, summarising evidence from 788 systematic reviews, with 15 new or updated summaries added this month. They include 43 combined summaries, covering 315 reviews, with 3 combined summaries added this month.

Among the new additions are summaries for the updates of Cochrane Reviews on travel-related control measures and point of care tests for COVID-19, a new combined summary on the effects of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, an updated combined summary for surgical and operating room procedures and a new summary for the review of the role of community health workers in humanitarian settings.

Translations: 500 of the summaries are available in Arabic, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), French, Portuguese and Spanish; with 180 in Italian and 109 in German.

Literature searches: Almost 1000 records were screened this month, adding dozens of new reviews to our pending pile, with work ongoing on 47 review summaries and 10 combined summaries.

Volunteers: More than 65 volunteers continue to do amazing work for the project, including 44 summary writers, 11 screeners and 14 information specialists/librarians, from over 20 countries.

Social Media channels: Twitter (@Evidence Aid), Facebook (Evidence Aid – page and group) and Instagram (evidenceaid).