Cochrane Collaboration

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 It has been suggested that Cochrane Library be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

The Cochrane Collaboration is a group of over 11,500 volunteers in more than 90 countries who apply a rigorous, systematic process to review the effects of interventions tested in biomedical randomized controlled trials.[1] A few more recent reviews have also studied the results of non-randomized, observational studies. The results of these systematic reviews are published in the Cochrane Library.

The Cochrane Collaboration was founded in 1993 under the leadership of Iain Chalmers, It was developed in response to Archie Cochrane's call for up-to-date, systematic reviews of all relevant randomized controlled trials of health care. Cochrane's suggestion that the methods used to prepare and maintain reviews of controlled trials in pregnancy and childbirth should be applied more widely was taken up by the Research and Development Programme, initiated to support the United Kingdom's National Health Service. Funds were provided to establish a 'Cochrane Centre', to collaborate with others, in the UK and elsewhere, to facilitate systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials across all areas of health care.[2]

Contents

Goal

The goal is to help people make well informed decisions about health care by preparing, maintaining and ensuring the accessibility of systematic reviews of the effects of health care interventions. The principles of the Cochrane Collaboration:

Location of studies

Cochrane reviewers locate studies for inclusion in a Cochrane review by several means [1]

Included studies are not necessarily only published studies or studies indexed by MEDLINE: limiting the inclusion in this way would make the review subject to publication bias.

Academic comments

The Cochrane Library Feedback tool allows users to provide comments on and feedback of Cochrane Reviews and Protocols in The Cochrane Library. If accepted, the feedback will be published in a scrolling list of comments in reverse chronological order, with the most recent submission at the top of the page.[3] The Collaboration has a procedure for the event of serious error, an event which has only occurred once in the history of the Collaboration. [4]

Cochrane reviews appear to be relatively underused in the United States, presumably because public access is limited.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ The Cochrane Collaboration - About The Cochrane Collaboration
  2. ^ http://www.cochrane.org/docs/cchronol.htm Chronology of the Cochrane Collaboration
  3. ^ The Cochrane Collaboration. The Cochrane Manual Issue 1, 2008, section 2.2.5.4 COCHRANE LIBRARY FEEDBACK HOUSE RULES [updated 15 November 2007]. (http://www.cochrane.org/admin/manual.htm) (accessed 12th December 2007])
  4. ^ Procedures to be followed in the event of serious errors in published Cochrane reviews
  5. ^ Grimes, D. A.; Hou, M. Y.; Lopez, L. M.; Nanda, K. (2008). "Do Clinical Experts Rely on the Cochrane Library?". Obstetrics & Gynecology (Am Coll Ob/Gyn) 111 (2): 420. http://www.greenjournal.org/cgi/content/abstract/111/2/420. 

External links