A/Professor Zachary Munn is an advocate for evidence-based healthcare and for ensuring patients receive the best care possible based on the best available evidence. He is the director of the Transfer Science program of the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) and a systematic review and guideline development methodologist.
JBI is an evidence-based healthcare research institute working towards a vision of the world in which the best available evidence is used to inform decision making at the point of care globally. JBI hosts the Joanna Briggs Collaboration, a network of 80 centres and groups with thousands of people contributing to this vision across the globe.
In his role as Director of Transfer Science, A/Prof Zachary Munn leads the development and coordination of the Institute’s educational courses, the development of systematic review and implementation software tools, and the promotion and publication of the collaboration’s methodologies. A/Prof Munn is the current Chair of the International JBI Scientific Committee and has been involved in the conduct of dozens of systematic reviews, clinical guidelines, evidence implementation and health services research projects. He is the convenor of two methodology committees focusing on grading evidence and systematic reviews of prevalence and incidence data. He has been an invited speaker at numerous conferences internationally, presenting on clinical practice guideline development, implementation science, systematic reviews and evidence-based healthcare. He is on the editorial board for the International Journal of Evidence-based Healthcare and is an Associate Editor for BMC Medical Research Methodology. He has published dozens of papers in peer reviewed journals.
He has been involved in and led research grants and commissioned projects for the UK Department for International Development, the Sax institute, HCF Health and Medical Research Foundation, the Centre of Research Excellence in Aboriginal Chronic Disease Knowledge Translation and Exchange (CREATE), the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), the Australian College of Operating Room Nurses, Queensland Health (Allied Health), the Heart Foundation of Australia, Australian Diabetes Educators Association, Canberra and the Julian Burton Burns Trust Clipsal Community Grant.
A/Prof Zachary Munn is an active member of the Guidelines International Network (G-I-N) Australia and New Zealand regional steering group and the G-I-N Tech group. He is also the Director of the JBI Adelaide GRADE Center, the first GRADE Center in Australia. With a clinical background in medical imaging, nowadays A/Prof Munn is considered an expert systematic review methodologist and implementation scientist. He is a G-I-N Board Trustee, a Cochrane author, a member of the GRADE working group and project groups, and a member of the Living Systematic Reviews network. He is a current member of the NHMRC Synthesis and Translation of Research Evidence (SToRE) Advisory Group.
In his role as a G-I-N Tech steering group member and as a product owner of JBI software (JBI SUMARI), A/Prof Munn is very familiar with the various tools available for systematic review and clinical guideline development and has been involved in the development of these tools. He understands how these tools can contribute to trustworthy clinical guideline development whilst still maintaining relevancy and currency, and where their use can optimise a digital and trustworthy evidence ecosystem.
Although A/Prof Munn is involved in many systematic reviews and guideline projects, perhaps the most rewarding part of his role is the chance to work hands on with clinicians and health services to facilitate the implementation of evidence into practice, particularly in low resource and LMIC settings.