Umbrella Reviews

Giuseppe Biondi-Zoccai is Assistant Professor in Cardiology in the Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies of Sapienza University of Rome. He has got an established expertise in evidence-based cardiovascular medicine and is the founder of the Meta-analysis and Evidence-based medicine Training in Cardiology (METCARDIO) Collaboration. He has published more than 500 articles indexed in MEDLINE, including more than 130 systematic reviews, meta-analyses, or umbrella reviews, and he is the editor of the first book devoted to network meta-analyses and mixed treatment comparisons.

1 Evidence hierarchy.- 2 From qualitative reviews to umbrella reviews.- 3 Umbrella reviews, overviews of reviews, meta-epidemiologic studies: similarities and differences.- 4 Designing the review.- 5 Registering the review.- 6 Searching evidence.- 7 Abstracting evidence.- 8 Appraising evidence.- 9 Synthesizing evidence.- 10 Appraising moderators and confounders.- 11 State of the art reporting.- 12 Case study in anesthesiology and intensive care.- 13 Case study in basic research.- 14 Case study in cardiovascular disease.- 15 Case study in dermatology.- 16 Case study in oncology.- 17 Case study in radiology.- 18 Case study in surgery.- 19 Moving from evidence to action.- 20 Avenues for further research.- 21 Conclusion.

"This is a great reference for conducting an umbrella review given the novelty of the methodology and availability of several systematic reviews on a given clinical topic. ... This well-written, step-by-step guide to umbrella reviews takes a complex, novel topic and breaks it down into manageable, easy to understand pieces. I would recommend this book for those new to the field and also to those who have done reviews in the past." (Rajeshwari Nair, Doody's Book Reviews, June, 2016)