Outputs & Publications

This report provides a summary of the horizon scan carried out to look at the indications for pembrolizumab, atezolizumab, and nivolumab that might get market approval in UK in the next few years. It presents the findings of our analysis regarding number of MInD records for each of the drugs, status of the records on […]

Background: The reliable and usable (semi)automation of data extraction can support the field of systematic review by reducing the workload required to gather information about the conduct and results of the included studies. This living systematic review examines published approaches for data extraction from reports of clinical studies.Methods: We systematically and continually search PubMed, ACL Anthology, arXiv, […]

Living reviews are an increasingly popular research paradigm. The purpose of a ‘living’ approach is to allow rapid collation, appraisal and synthesis of evolving evidence on an important research topic, enabling timely influence on patient care and public health policy. However, living reviews are time- and resource-intensive. The accumulation of new evidence and the possibility […]

The amount of grey literature and ‘softer’ intelligence from social media or websites is vast. Given the long lead-times of producing high-quality peer-reviewed health information, this is causing a demand for new ways to provide prompt input for secondary research. To our knowledge, this is the first review of automated data extraction methods or tools […]

We performed a systematic review of diagnostic test accuracy with the objective to assess the diagnostic accuracy of non-invasive or minimally invasive autopsy techniques in deaths under 1 year of age. MEDLINE (Ovid), EMBASE (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCO), the Cochrane Library, Scopus and grey literature sources were searched from inception to November 2021. Studies were included if […]

New technologies continue to revolutionise the world as we have known it. There is no reason to think that early childhood will be spared this revolution. All indications are that technology companies, families, carers, and the education sector will continue to incorporate innovation into the lives of babies and young children around the globe. And yet the topic and the […]

The use of Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly expanding and evolving in the clinical practice and community care settings. AI-based healthcare technologies encompass a diverse range of technologies. In general, these technologies are designed to learn from their experiences, adapt to new inputs, and perform a variety of tasks, such as making predictions, recommendations, and […]

Current methodologies for designing search strategies rely heavily on the knowledge and expertise of information specialists. Yet, the volume and complexity of scientific literature is overwhelming for even the most experienced information specialists, making it difficult to produce robust search strategies for complex systematic reviews. In this case study, we aimed to assess and describe […]

In this paper, horizon scanning techniques were used to systematically identify health technologies related to faecal incontinence (FI) in active development using the NIHR Innovation Observatory’s ScanMedicine database. We found that most late-stage trials focused on bowel management strategies, followed by strategies related to bladder and bowel dysfunction. There was limited evidence found for new […]

PET radiopharmaceuticals are used to diagnose and monitor a range of medical conditions. For example, they are used to diagnose cancer, assess the effectiveness of cancer treatments, and monitor the health of organs and tissues. PET radiopharmaceuticals can also be used to detect certain diseases before they become symptomatic. However, PET radiopharmaceuticals can cause radiation […]

Following a request from the AMR Programme Board and the AMR Diagnostic Programme Board, the Innovation Observatory sought to undertake horizon scanning activities for Respiratory Tract Infection (RTI) technologies and to identify the pipeline of development, key players, opportunities and challenges in the field. The findings of that horizon scan were summarised into the accompanying […]

The Systematic Review (SR) Toolbox was developed in 2014 to collate tools that can be used to support the systematic review process but the breadth of evidence synthesis methodologies has expanded greatly since its inception. We updated the SR Toolbox in 2022 to reflect these changes and also briefly analysed included tools and guidance to […]

In the UK, there are many agencies, bodies and initiatives associated with making decisions around healthcare. Their role, capacity and place in the decision-making landscape is not always clear and while some have a statutory capacity, others act in a more advisory or facilitatory role. In this report, we identify all structures in the UK […]

Faecal incontinence (FI) has a high prevalence in both community and residential settings. Historically, there has been a lack of priority setting recommendations for FI. Our priority setting exercise for Cochrane Incontinence, used an evidence gap map to provide a visual overview of emerging trial evidence; existing systematic review-level evidence and FI stakeholder topic uncertainties […]

The NIHR Innovation Observatory has undertaken a horizon scan to identify innovative devices, digital and diagnostic medical technologies developed for use for children or young people with actual or suspected paediatric neurological traumatic injury. Systematic searches were performed to identify registered clinical trials and funding awards published as well as news articles. Search results were […]