[SR/PS-method for using data of primary studies from systematic reviews in the evaluation of health technologies]

In general, the evaluation of health technologies is a time-consuming process being performed on the basis of systematic reviews of clinical (primary) studies. In order to save time, health technologies may be assessed based on previously published systematic reviews. However, this assessment method can be associated with a high risk of bias of the obtained results. We developed, therefore, the "Systematic Reviews for assessment based on Primary Studies" (SR/PS) method to enable a transparent, valid and time-saving evaluation of the technologies. Using the SR/PS method the evaluation of the hits that were identified through the literature search for systematic reviews and, if appropriate, through additional search for primary studies is being performed in three stages, namely identification, quality assessment and information synthesis. This process results in the ascertainment of the three most important sets of information: the pool of identified studies, the pool of methodologically sound studies and the results of the information synthesis. Each stage of the evaluation comprises the comprehensive use of relevant data on primary studies from the systematic reviews. At each stage, the corresponding systematic reviews will be selected from the identified hits using certain quality criteria. If information obtained from the systematic reviews is insufficient it will be completed by additionally incorporating the primary studies. The SR/PS method can be especially helpful in performing projects with many primary studies (e. g., guidelines development).