JBI Danish Centre of Systematic Reviews Celebrates 10 Years

We spoke with the director, Associate Professor Merete Bjerrum, to discuss the history of the Centre, its achievements, and her time with JBI. 

Hi Merete, can you tell us about how your Centre was established? 

The Danish Centre of Systematic Reviews was established by the Danish Centre of Clinical Guidelines in 2011. The Danish Centre was founded by Professor Preben Ulrich Pedersen, who was the director of the Danish Centre until 2019. Dr Pedersen was also the founder of the Danish Centre of Clinical Guidelines in 2008, which aimed to strengthen evidence-based practice within clinical nursing. The Centre of Clinical Guidelines is committed to bridging the gap between research and clinical practice based on JBI methods by providing: 

• clinical guidelines based on critical appraisal of the existing research;  
• increased academic competencies in clinical practice to incorporate research into practice; 
• universal access to health services based on sustainable scientific evidence of high quality, within affordable limits. 

To ensure the quality of clinical guidelines, highly trained nurses who are able to conduct systematic reviews were essential. In 2008, only few Danish nurses had the required qualifications, therefore, the Centre of Clinical Guidelines looked for an internationally recognised partner and decided to be part of the JBI Collaboration. In 2011, the board of the Danish Centre for Clinical Guidelines applied for membership of the JBI Collaboration. 

What have you achieved in your 10 years as a JBI Centre? 

In the 10 years that the Danish Centre of Systematic Reviews has been in existence, we have: 

• seen more than 100 people complete training in conducting systematic reviews; 
• published 75 protocols in JBI Evidence Synthesis and other journals; 
• seen several nurses across all 25 of Denmark’s hospitals complete JBI systematic review training, who can now assist in developing clinical guidelines; 
• conducted systematic reviews using the JBI approach, which has also been incorporated in masters and PhD curriculums at universities. 

In all modesty, The Centre for Clinical Guidelines has achieved consensus among Danish nurse directors regarding the necessity for clinical guidelines, which has resulted in a national strategy (formed in 2011) to develop 60 national clinical guidelines in a four-year period thanks to a €12 million grant. A national steering group, in which The Danish Centre was represented, was established to facilitate the development of these guidelines. The steering group successfully proposed that future work on conducting clinical guidelines be based on the GRADE recommendations, and thereby align with the JBI approach.  

Importantly, in recent years, conducting systematic reviews has been incorporated in the masters and PhD curriculums at universities, which has to a great extent been initiated by faculty members who have completed one of the Danish Centre’s courses in systematic reviews, which is based on JBI methodology. Further, more and more students are buying single-user access to JBI SUMARI. 

Two professors are affiliated with the Centre of Clinical Guidelines at Aalborg University: Preben Ulrich Pedersen (2013) and Merete Bjerrum (2020). Currently the Centre focuses on how to systematically incorporate qualitative evidence into future clinical guidelines, based on the meta-aggregative approach. Additionally, Merete Bjerrum currently supervises the National Board of Health in meta-aggregation based on JBI SUMARI. The aim is to incorporate qualitative evidence in the future manual for developing Danish national clinical guidelines. 

What do you look forward to in the future? 

First of all, we look forward to meeting our colleagues from the JBI community and discussing evidence-based practice issues. Many of us still remember the Global Evidence Summit held in Cape Town in 2017 as JBI and the other organisers really captured the best of each of the participating organisations. We look forward to joining the upcoming Global Evidence Summit in Prague in 2023. 

Thank you for your commitment and effort Merete and team, and good luck in the future!