Continental Europe Support Unit

The Continental Europe Support Unit (CESU) is one of the regional support units for Cochrane Reviews of Diagnostic Test Accuracy. CESU assists primarily the Cochrane entities that are based on mainland Europe with the implementation of methods and procedures for developing those reviews.

CESU is located in the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam.
Phone: +31-20-566 5602
E-mail: cesu@amc.uva.nl

Staff

Mariska Leeflang (MSc), veterinarian and interested in (veterinary) public health. Mariska is PhD student in methodology of systematic reviews of diagnostic test accuracy. She is first author of one of the Cochrane pilot reviews of diagnostic test accuracy.

Lotty Hooft (PhD), medical biologist and clinical epidemiologist with specializations in oncology and interactive technology development in the field of public health, biotechnology and biomedical sciences. Her current focus is on methodology and report of (Cochrane) systematic reviews (about healthcare interventions and diagnostic tests). She teaches within the various EBM and SR courses of the Dutch Cochrane Centre en the dept. Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics. Also, she is the coordinator of the prospective trial register of the Netherlands.

Hans Reitsma (MD PhD), clinical epidemiologist in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at the University of Amsterdam. The main focus of his work is on diagnostic research. Hans is one of the co-convenors of the STARD-guidelines for reporting of diagnostic studies. He is furthermore one of the co-authors of the Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Diagnostic Test Accuracy.

Rob Scholten (MD PhD) is clinical epidemiologist and director of the Dutch Cochrane Centre. He has published diagnostic test accuracy systematic reviews about physical examination for diagnosing meniscal tears and anterior cruciate ligament injuries of the knee, respectively. Rob is also member of the diagnostic test accuracy handbook working group.

Activities of the CESU

The Continental Europe Support Unit (CESU) will collaborate closely with the UK Support Unit (UKSU), located in Birmingham. The following activities will be performed.

CRG Support

• Bring the Continental European CRGs on line with reviews of test accuracy, help them to create topic lists and potential titles for reviews, and provide education to editorial staff in review processes for test accuracy reviews
• To support Continental European CRGs with question formulation, search strategies, assessment of study quality and statistical analyses, and with use of the RevMan software
• To organise methodological peer review of protocols and reviews of test accuracy

Training

• Development of training courses for (a) CRG editorial teams, (b) review authors and (c) Centre staff
• Contribute to the development of an advanced training courses for (Cochrane) methodologists in systematic reviews of diagnostic test accuracy
• Run a regular programme of training courses for CRG editorial teams, Centre staff and review authors in the region
• Run, in close collaboration with UKSU, an international training course for methodologists in systematic reviews of diagnostic test accuracy

Tools and Development

• Creation of an instruction manual and tutorials for the new Diagnostic Accuracy RevMan software
• To contribute to the Diagnostic Accuracy Reviewers’ Handbook
• To work with the Collaboration publishers in the design and testing of publication software