Living Evidence 2026 Program

17 February 2026 | Monash University School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine | 553 St Kilda Road, Melbourne


Session 1


9:30am

Welcome Steve McDonald | Cochrane Australia

9:35am

Do guidelines dream of electric evidence?

Britta Tendal Jeppesen | Future Evidence Foundation, Denmark

10.00am

Redefining "evidence" in the context of living guidelines

Heath White | Australian Living Evidence Collaboration (ALEC)

10:20am

Research integrity: now we have the data, but are they true?

Ben Mol | Monash University

10:40am

It’s time for an update: AGREE III, the next iteration of guideline appraisal

Melissa Brouwers | University of Ottawa, Canada


11:00 Break


Session 2 | Chair: Kylie Porritt, JBI


11:30am

Living systematic reviews: alive and well after 7 years?

Rebecca Hodder | University of Newcastle

11:45am

AI-enabled evidence surveillance and screening for living guidelines: swings and roundabouts

Darren Rajit | Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation, Monash University

12:05pm

Synergies between prospective and living reviews, and living evidence surveillance systems

Lene Seidler | University of Rostock, Germany

12:25pm

Using AI to improve efficiency of evidence synthesis: possibilities and practicalities

Barbara Nussbaumer-Streit | Cochrane Austria and University of Krems


12:50pm Lunch


Session 3 | Chair: Tari Turner, ALEC


1:45pm

Lived experience involvement in living evidence: new possibilities

Annie Synnot | Australian Living Evidence Collaboration

2:00pm

Living evaluations for living guidelines

Tanya Millard | Australian Living Evidence Collaboration

2:20pm

Beyond adoption: adding value to international guidelines from Australia and New Zealand

David Tunnicliffe | University of Sydney

2:40pm

The evidence synthesis taxonomy initiative and managing diverse types of evidence synthesis

Zachary Munn | Health Evidence Synthesis, Recommendations and Impact, Adelaide University


3:00pm Break-out session leading to afternoon tea: 

  1. Lived experience – Annie Synnot, Danielle Pollock

  2. Use of AI in synthesis – Barbara Nussbaumer-Streit, Kylie Porritt

  3. Living guideline methods – Heath White, Britta Tendal Jeppesen

  4. NHMRC policies, procedures – Agnes Wilson, Alex Schiavuzzi

  5. GRADE guidance, methods – Sue Brennan, Zac Munn

  6. Search and surveillance – Darren Rajit, Steve McDonald


Session 4 | Chair: Agnes Wilson | NHMRC


3:50pm

Integrating randomised and non-randomised evidence: new GRADE guidance and implications for living guidelines

Sue Brennan | Melbourne GRADE Centre

4:10pm

Innovative approaches to develop and scale up guidelines for better Planetary Health

Miranda Cumpston | Cochrane Planetary Health, Monash University

4:30pm

Moving beyond living evidence: Why living evidence is not enough & how we can get the evidence we actually need

Tari Turner | Australian Living Evidence Collaboration

5:00pm

Close Steve McDonald | Cochrane Australia


5.30 - 9pm | Social event

Venue: College Lawn Hotel | 36 Greville St Prahran

Join us for a frosty beverage post-symposium to discuss the highlights from the day and catch up with fellow participants in the (hopefully) sunny beer garden of the College Lawn Hotel. It’s just a short stroll from our symposium venue.

 

Speakers

  • Britta Tendal Jeppesen

    Britta Tendal Jeppesen

    Britta is the Chief Scientist at Future Evidence Foundation and an adjunct associate professor at Monash University.

    Topic: Do Guidelines dream of electric evidence?

  • Heath White

    Heath White

    Heath is the Director of Evidence and Methods at the Australian Living Evidence Collaboration (ALEC).

    Topic: Redefining "evidence" in the context of living guidelines

  • Ben Mol

    Ben Mol

    Ben leads the Evidence-based Women’s Health Care Research Group in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at Monash University.  

    Topic: Research integrity: now we have the data, but are they true?

  • Dr Melissa Brouwers, University of Ottawa, Canada

    Melissa Brouwers

    Melissa is the Director of the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa, Canada.

    Topic: It’s time for an update: AGREE III, the next iteration of guideline appraisal.

  • Rebecca Hodder

    Rebecca is an NHMRC Early Career Research Fellow at the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Newcastle.

    Topic: Living systematic reviews: alive and well after 7 years?

  • Darren Rajit

    Darren Rajit

    Darren is completing his PhD at the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation (MCHRI) focusing on learning health systems, complexity and tech.

    Topic: AI-enabled evidence surveillance and screening for living guidelines: swings and roundabouts

  • Lene Seidler

    Lene Seidler

    Lene holds positions at the University of Sydney and University of Rostock, Germany and leads Cochrane's Prospective Meta-Analysis Methods Group.

    Topic: Synergies between prospective and living reviews, and living evidence surveillance systems

  • Barbara Nussbaumer-Streit, Danube University Krems, Austria

    Barbara Nussbaumer-Streit

    Barbara is a Professor for Methods Research in Evidence Synthesis at the University of Krems and leads Cochrane Austria.

    Topic: Using AI to improve efficiency of evidence synthesis: possibilities and practicalities

  • Anneliese Synnot

    Anneliese Synnot

    Anneliese is a Senior Research Fellow and leads the lived experience engagement portfolio for the Australian Living Evidence Collaboration (ALEC).

    Topic: Lived experience involvement in living evidence: new possibilities

  • Tanya Millard

    Tanya Millard

    Tanya is a Senior Research Fellow and leads the evaluation and prioritisation research portfolio at the Australian Living Evidence Collaboration (ALEC).

    Topic: Living evaluations for living guidelines

  • David Tunnicliffe

    David is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sydney and Scientific Director of the CARI Guidelines (Caring for Australian and New Zealanders with Kidney Impairment).

    Topic: Beyond adoption: adding value to international guidelines from Australia and New Zealand

  • Zachary Munn

    Zachary Munn

    Zac is Professor and the founding Director of Health Evidence Synthesis, Recommendations and Impact (HESRI) in the School of Public Health at the University of Adelaide.

    Topic: The evidence synthesis taxonomy initiative and managing diverse types of evidence synthesis

  • Sue Brennan

    Sue Brennan

    Sue is the founding Director of the Melbourne GRADE Centre and Senior Research Fellow in evidence synthesis methods at Cochrane Australia.

    Topic: Integrating randomised and non-randomised evidence: new GRADE guidance and implications for living guidelines

  • Miranda Cumpston

    Miranda Cumpston

    Miranda is the Guidelines Program Manager at the Australian Living Evidence Collaboration (ALEC) and Co-Director of Cochrane's international Planetary Health Thematic Group.

    Topic: Innovative approaches to develop and scale up guidelines for better Planetary Health

  • Tari Turner

    Tari Turner

    Tari is Director of the Australian Living Evidence Collaboration (ALEC) and a Professor (Research) at Cochrane Australia.

    Topic: Moving beyond living evidence: why living evidence is not enough & how we can get the evidence we actually need

The images featured for each event above are artists’ illustration of artificial intelligence (AI) inspired by neural networks used in deep learning. They were created by Novoto Studio as part of the Visualising AI project launched by Google DeepMind and are all available royalty free on Unsplash.

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