Table 2 An explanation of systematic reviews

Systematic reviews are summaries of research evidence that address a clearly formulated question using systematic and explicit methods to identify, select, and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect and analyse data from the studies that are included in the review. Statistical methods (meta-analysis) may or may not be used to analyse and summarise the results of the included studies. Structured summaries of systematic reviews of health system arrangements can be found on the SUPPORT web pages (http://www.support-collaboration.org), including the examples summarised in Additional File 3.