Cochrane Colloquia are our annual flagship events, bringing together Cochrane contributors from around the world to discuss, develop and promote Cochrane, and help shape its future.

The 2016 Cochrane Colloquium will be held in Seoul, South Korea from 23-27 October. For full information regarding the Colloquium, please visit the website.

• Key information
• Latest news
• Plenaries, speakers and symposia

Key information:

• Programme overview: colloquium.cochrane.org/programme-overview
• Registration fees: colloquium.cochrane.org/registration-fees
• Key dates: colloquium.cochrane.org/key-dates
• Website: colloquium.cochrane.org
• Hashtag: #CochraneSeoul

Latest news:

• The Colloquium app is now available!
  The app is available to download for free, for both Android and iOS (iPhone and iPad).
  
  To access the app, search for “Cochrane Colloquium” in either the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.
  
  Please note that there are other, seemingly related apps available – neither is relevant to the Seoul Colloquium!
  
  1. “Cochrane Colloquium 2015”, the app for last year’s Colloquium, is still available on both platforms.
  
  2. “Cochrane UK & Ireland”, the app for the 2016 Cochrane UK & Ireland Symposium, is also still available on the Google Play Store.

• Sign-up for the Anne Anderson Walk
  The walk around Gyeongbokgung (Gyoengbok Palace) is a fundraising event for the Anne Anderson Award fund. The walk is on Wednesday 26 October at 14:30. The tour guides have been provided gratis. If you would like to sign-up for the walk, you can do so here. To donate to the award fund, click here.

  

• 2016 Annual General Meeting
  Cochrane’s Annual General Meeting will be held on Tuesday 25 October, at the Colloquium. Find out more, here.

• Sign-up now open for the full Colloquium schedule
  Sign-up for all the sessions you want to attend and create your own personal schedule for the Colloquium! You can also export the schedule to your online calendar. We'll be launching the Colloquium app in early October that will sync with your personal schedule. Details of the poster sessions are being finalised now and will be available from 21 September. 

• Very limited room availability at the Grand Hilton
  As of 25 August, we have been advised that very few rooms are available. We have removed the online reservation page - please contact the Hilton directly (via reservation.grandseoul@hilton.com 
   or T +82-2-2287-8428) to check if there are any rooms available.

Plenaries, speakers and symposia:

Plenary 1: Overdiagnosis and overtreatment in health care

In this session, the role of evidence-based health care and systematic reviews in limiting overdiagnosis and oversue will be discussed, including realignment of disease definition; quantification and monitoring of overdiagnosis; sensitisation of health professionals and patients; provision of balanced information on risk and benefits intervention; and the implications for Cochrane.

Speakers:

• Alexandra Barratt, Professor of Public Health, School of Public Health, University of Sydney

• Rita F. Redberg, Editor, JAMA Internal Medicine. Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of California, San Francisco

• Jenny Doust, Professor of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University

Plenary 2: Challenges and different approaches to improve the quality, timeliness and usability of Cochrane Reviews

The speakers in the plenary session have been asked to describe their experiences in making challenging decisions regarding the quality and usability of Cochrane reviews. Different perspectives and lively debate will be sought with particular focus on potential initiatives that are being explored and are consistent with the CEU vision for high quality and timely Cochrane Reviews that meets the needs of end-users and informs clinical care and health policy.

Speakers:

• James Thomas, Project Transform, Cochrane. Director of the EPPI-Centre’s Reviews Facility, Department of Health, England

• Karla Soares-Weiser, Deputy Editor in Chief, Cochrane Library & Cochrane Innovations

• Marguerite Koster, External Member, Cochrane Steering Group

• Harriet MacLehose, Senior Editor, Cochrane Library

• Claire Glenton, Director, Cochrane Norway

Plenary 3: Data transparency: where are we and what can we get?

Pressure to increase transparency of data in clinical research is growing as scientific academies, regulatory agencies, funders and international organisations join the call for more data transparency. In this session, recent issues in the open data movement, data access policies and its impact on health care are discussed. Some examples of the impact of lack of transparency in East Asia will highlighted.

Speakers:

• Kay Dickersin, Director, Cochrane United States. Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Clinical Trials & Evidence Synthesis

• Byung Joo Park, Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine

• Lesley Stewart, Director, Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York

• Rintaro Mori, Director, Cochrane Japan. Head of Department National Center for Child Health and Department of Clinical Epidemiology

Annual Cochrane Lecture: Four challenges for EBM and Cochrane’s future

Since the term evidence based medicine (EBM) was coined over 20 years ago it has had a remarkable global influence. But EBM is not a static set of concepts, set in stone tablets in the 1990s; it is a young and evolving discipline. The fundamental concept of systematic reviews – providing a periodic summary of all controlled trials to aid clinical care – may have changed little since the birth of Cochrane. However, how to best provide and apply these in practice continues to develop.

In this year’s Cochrane Lecture, Paul Glasziou will propose four areas requiring renewed or ongoing attention:

1. Improve dialogue between “evidologists” and clinicians
2. Treatment is the patient’s decision: support and promote shared decision making
3. Take non-drug interventions as seriously as pharmaceuticals
4. Sustain investment in automating evidence synthesis 

Speaker:

• Paul Glasziou, Professor, Evidence-Based Medicine at Bond University; Chair, International Society for Evidence-Based Health Care

#CochraneTech Symposium: The new ecosystem for evidence synthesis

Cochrane’s technological innovations are set to transform the way evidence for health is created and used. Join us at the #CochraneTech Symposium in Seoul to discover first-hand the emerging Cochrane ecosystem for evidence synthesis.

We’re preparing an exciting morning of talks and discussion centred around how Cochrane is using its technology to help both prepare systematic reviews more efficiently but also better deliver outputs to our end-users. The #CochraneTech Symposium is the premier event for those interested in the application and integration of existing and emerging technologies in the production of Cochrane systematic reviews and evidence synthesis in health care.

Since the inaugural #CochraneTech Symposium in Québec City in 2013 several ambitious technological strategies have been pursued by Cochrane, and we welcome you to join us in exploring this new ecosystem for evidence synthesis.

Methods Symposium: Living Systematic Reviews: Methods, Opportunities and Challenges

Living systematic reviews, as online summaries of healthcare research that are updated as new research becomes available, offer exciting possibilities in the new evidence ecosystem. Momentum is building around the living systematic review concept: a number of approaches are being piloted and Cochrane is at the forefront of these efforts. Living systematic reviews differ from traditional systematic reviews in several ways that have important implications for review methods and processes, affecting authors, editors and publishers. 

At this interactive symposium, we will explore what living systematic reviews actually are and their implications for Cochrane. Participants will hear from those who have been piloting living systematic review methods and will be invited to contribute their expertise as we explore the implications of LSRs for review methods and review production processes, plus the enablers within Cochrane to support their introduction.

Knowledge Translation (KT) Symposium

In 2016 Cochrane is embarking on the development of a Knowledge Translation (KT) Strategy, which will inform, facilitate and coordinate KT activities within Cochrane. We hope this strategy will scope knowledge translation activities for Cochrane, build on the Strategy to 2020 goals and provide a framework and co-ordination to support those who are undertaking knowledge translation activities in Cochrane. This framework will guide our knowledge translation work and ensure quality of outputs. We hope to establish mechanisms for better coordination of knowledge translation work within Cochrane so that organisational learning in this area flows through Cochrane.

In this symposium we will be presenting the current draft of Cochrane’s KT strategy. There will be brief presentations on the work around the strategy, an opportunity for discussion and input into further development of the strategy and the implementation plans accompanying it and what it will mean for knowledge translation in Cochrane.

Look forward to seeing you in Seoul in October!