28 March 2017 - Economic evaluation is an accepted element of decision making and priority setting in healthcare.  Although search methodology makes an important contribution to systematic review quality, search methods in reviews of economic evaluations have not been evaluated in detail. 

Wood et al. investigated the resources used to identify studies in recent, published systemic reviews of economic evaluations, and assessed whether the resources reflected recommendations.

They searched MEDLINE for systematic reviews of economic evaluations published since January 2013 and extracted the following from eligible reviews: databases searched, health technology assessment (HTA) sources searched, supplementary search techniques used.

Twenty-three reviews (55%) did not meet the NICE recommendations or four of five of the SuRe Info recommended resource types. Search reporting was frequently unclear or incorrect.

Read International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care article