Interested in learning from COVID-END partners and affiliates from around the world? Our webinars in this series will feature insights into the work of COVID-END to better support COVID-19 decision-making, how to find and use the best evidence that is already out there, and selected partner activities, which span the full gamut of COVID-19 issues, from public-health measures and clinical management to health-system arrangements and economic and social responses. It also covers the full spectrum of contexts where the pandemic response is playing out, including low-, middle- and high-income countries.

Upcoming webinars

TBC

Past webinars

Drawing together the threads: operationalising the output from the Horizon-scanning panel
Date: 3 November 2021, 10-11am ET
>> Watch a recording from this webinar
COVID-END’s Horizon-scanning panel of citizens, service providers, policymakers and researchers has met regularly over the last pandemic period with the aim of proactively identifying long-term, recurring and emergent issues as priority topics for evidence synthesis.  This presentation explains the process that COVID-END’s Prioritizing Working Group is working through, to operationalize this list of priorities in order to encourage their adoption by researchers and research funders.

United Nations Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery: Leveraging the Power of Science for a More Equitable, Resilient and Sustainable Future
Date: 29 September 2021, 10-11am ET
>> Watch a recording from this webinar
>> Download the presentation slides
>> Read the UN Research Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery
The COVID-19 crisis has exposed stark global inequities, fragilities and unsustainable practices that pre-date this pandemic and have intensified its impact. Invited by the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Steven J. Hoffman led a 10-week participatory process to develop a UN Research Roadmap that outlines how science and scientific collaboration can spur an equitable global socio-economic recovery. In his presentation Professor Hoffman will share details on how the Roadmap was developed, its key components, and how researchers, research funders, civil society organizations and governments can use it to guide their work.
Presenter:Steven Hoffman
Host: COVID-END

Living rapid reviews: methods for dealing with study results with limited relevance to current context? Date: 7 July 2021, 10-11am ET
This webinar explored methods for living rapid reviews that directly respond to decision/policy maker requests for evidence syntheses with short turn around times. An emerging methodological issue relates to how to deal with study results that have limited relevance to the current context. For example, in a living rapid review on the role of schools and childcare on transmission of COVID-19, study results from early in the pandemic may provide limited insight given so much more is now known about transmission of the virus, the emergence of variants of concern, and the availability of vaccines. During this webinar we described decisions we have made to address this issue and what impact this has had on study inclusion in a number of our living rapid reviews.
Presenters: Sarah Neil-Sztramko, PhD and Maureen Dobbins, RN, PhD
Host: COVID-END
Watch a recording of this webinar

Supporting the global evidence response to COVID – the first year of COVID-END 
Date: 2 June, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a once-in-a-generation level of interest in the best-available evidence to inform policy, practice and personal decisions. The COVID-19 Evidence Network to support Decision-making (COVID-END) (covid-end.org/). was established as a time-limited network of global evidence synthesis, guidance and decision support organisations that aims to better coordinate their collective evidence response to the pandemic. COVID-END celebrated its first birthday in April – this webinar will describe this initiative, it’s work to date and future plans. Join us for the celebration.
Presenters: Jeremy Grimshaw and others.
Host: COVID-END
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Tackling COVID-19 misinformation shared via WhatsApp 
Date: 23 April, 2021
Misinformation about COVID-19 threatens to exacerbate the impact of the pandemic, undermine efforts to tackle the disease, and permanently reduce our trust in the global health system. We attempt to answer the questions: what is the nature and harms of the misinformation? How are social media users engaging with health misinformation? And which mitigating strategies work best?
Presenters: Nkululeko Tshabalala and Andile Madonsela
Host: COVID-END
Watch a recording of this webinar
Read the publication Tackling misinformation on WhatsApp in Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal & South Africa: Effective strategies in a time of Covid-19

The COVID-END inventory: an in-depth analysis of evidence syntheses addressing decisions related to the COVID-19 pandemic response
Date: 24 March, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an explosion of data and research on COVID-19 globally, with several entities involved in the production, collection, and synthesis of knowledge. In this context, decision-makers often face difficulties to find and use research evidence for their specific needs. Furthermore, duplication of knowledge outputs further impedes use with key decision-making needs seeing multiple similar output being produced. To address these issues the COVID-19 Evidence Network to support decision-making (COVID-END) has created an inventory of evidence syntheses, which is a comprehensive repository of the ‘best evidence syntheses’ for all types of decisions being faced by those who are part of the COVID-19 pandemic response. This presentation showed a landscape of the existing evidence syntheses related to decisions related to the COVID-19 pandemic response, by describing their topics, quality and presentation details, and by pointing where we could identify potential gaps and/or duplication of efforts.
Presenter: Cristián Mansilla
Host: COVID-END
Watch a recording of this webinar

Using specific COVID-19 targets and patient care settings as a springboard for driving global improvements in the evidence/guidance ecosystem cycle for COVID-19 and beyond
Date: 24 February, 2021
The AHRQ evidence-based Care Transformation Support (ACTS) initiative began 2 years ago to develop a stakeholder-driven roadmap for making the flow from evidence to guidance to action to data and back to evidence more FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable), computable and useful in supporting Learning Health Systems and achieving the quadruple aim.  The ACTS COVID Collaborative was formed to begin applying the ACTS Roadmap to helping hundreds of participants address the pandemic while accelerating progress toward a high functioning global evidence/guidance ecosystem cycle. This webinar will provide an overview of the Collaborative’s emerging work to use specific targets being addressed in specific settings to collaboratively drive global improvements in evidence/guidance ecosystem cycle function and outcomes for COVID-19 and beyond. Synergies with COVID-END efforts are being cultivated and many stakeholders are participating in both efforts. The second half of the webinar will be an open discussion about expanding the scope and value of these collaborations - hopefully in ways that enhance your organization's activities and results. 
Presenter: Jerome A. Osheroff, MD, FACP, FACMI
Host: COVID-END
Watch a recording of this webinar
Download a PDF of the webinar slides

Evidence synthesis communities in low-income and middle-income countries and the COVID-19 response
Date: 27 January, 2021
This webinar provided an overview of the conceptual and practical challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic poses to evidence synthesis organisations in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). This is based on a recently published Lancet commentary by COVID-END partners from LMICs. It also briefly introduced the strengths that enabled evidence synthesis organisations from LMICs to respond to demands for COVID-19 evidence in their contexts. This is based on collective learning and information-sharing among evidence synthesis organisations from LMICs and will inform a formal validation of experiences.
Presenters: Ms. Amena El-Harakeh and Dr Bey-Marrié Schmidt
Hosts: COVID-END
Watch a recording of this webinar

An introduction to COVID-END resources
Date: 2 December, 2020
COVID-END offers a wide range of resources for those supporting decision-making about COVID-19 to help them find and use the best available evidence, as well as for those preparing evidence syntheses related to COVID-19. This webinar will provide an overview of the resources available for decision-makers and researchers.
Presenters: John Lavis
Hosts: COVID-END
Watch a recording of this webinar

Scanning the horizon for COVID-19-related priorities: Insights from COVID-END’s global horizon scanning panel
Date: 4 November
This webinar will introduce participants to COVID-END’s global horizon scanning panel and share the priority topics identified by the panel from its most recent meeting on Oct 28th. COVID-END’s horizon scanning lead, Heather Bullock, will also discuss the inputs created to aid panel discussions and the process the team uses to produce them, as well as how insights are shared back with panel members and the research synthesis community.
Presenters: Heather Bullock
Hosts: COVID-END
Watch a recording from this webinar

The Living hub of COVID-19 knowledge hubs: A promising collaborative platform to organize knowledge and reduce duplication
Date: 14 October, 2020
The Living hub of COVID-19 knowledge hubs is an innovative tool that was jointly created by the Africa Center for Evidence (ACE) and the McMaster Health Forum, as part of their collaboration in the COVID-19 Evidence Network to support decision-making (COVID-END). This webinar will share how the Living Hub was originally created, implemented, and will conclude giving a few remarks on the future of the knowledge world in the COVID-19 era.
Presenters: Promise Nduku & Cristián Mansilla
Hosts: COVID-END and Global Evidence Synthesis Initiative

CanCOVID Speaker Series: COVID-END evidence synthesis
Date: 15 September, 2020
This webinar shared insights on best practices and how we can move from a sprint to a marathon in the evidence response to COVID-19.
Presenters: John Lavis and Jeremy Grimshaw, COVID-END co-chairs
Host: CanCOVID
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Top Ten insights into how COVID-END can help you prepare evidence syntheses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic
Date: 16 June, 2020
This webinar shared insights about the tools and resources available to support the production of rapid syntheses and other similar products in support of the COVID-19 response, drawing from their work as part of 1) COVID-END, 2) the Ontario Evidence Synthesis Network for COVID-19, and 3) a CIHR grant to develop a rapid synthesis service for the Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence in Ontario.
Presenters: John Lavis, Michael Wilson, Heather Bullock
Hosts: McMaster Health Forum 
Watch a recording from this webinar