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Evidence mapping for use in human health and ecological chemical assessments
Citation:
Hoff, D., K. Thayer, C. Elonen, A. Galizia, C. Keshava, J. Olker, AND A. Persad. Evidence mapping for use in human health and ecological chemical assessments. SETAC North America, Toronto, ON, CANADA, November 03 - 07, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
Transparent, methodologically rigorous, and rapid approaches are needed for conducting and updating human health and ecological chemical assessments. In this presentation we will outline the results of an evidence mapping protocol for integrating both human health and ecological chemical reviews. The process utilizes updated current toxicological databases and introduces state-of-the-science data analytic tools to rapidly screen and identify high quality and highly applicable data from the scientific toxicological literature for use in risk assessment of chemicals. The data gleaned from the literature is visually displayed as summaries of informative effect thresholds of pertinent biological endpoints.
Description:
Transparent, methodologically rigorous, and rapid approaches are needed for conducting and updating human health and ecological chemical assessments. Evidence maps, also referred to as systematic maps, are useful for systematic review analysis. An evidence map includes a systematic and documented literature and/or toxicity data base search strategy and efficient review of potentially applicable toxicity data. Ideally, an evidence map also includes a quality evaluation of the applicable data, a summary of informative effect thresholds for pertinent biological endpoints and a process that encourages quality reviews. The utility of an evidence map is demonstrated by its ability to inform the scope and level of effort required for a full assessment and to reveal gaps in knowledge and/or future research needs. Data summaries are presented in a user-friendly visualization format, or a searchable database. With the use of specialized software applications and integrating results of existing data curation databases (e.g. ECOTOX Knowledge base), preparation of an evidence map can be rapid, on the order of weeks. This presentation will present examples of integrated human health and ecological evidence maps with a focus on the application of each to risk assessment. In addition, this presentation will discuss the usefulness of evidence maps in determining whether updates are needed for existing assessments. Finally, the presentation will discuss software, staffing model, and project management approaches to track and expedite systematic reviews and the development of evidence maps.