Partnerships

AllTrials

The AllTrials campaign calls for all past and present clinical trials to be registered and their results reported. Hundreds of thousands of clinical trials have been conducted from which no or limited data have been made available; data critical to enabling doctors and regulators to make informed decisions about which treatments to use and fund. This is a serious problem for evidence-based healthcare researchers, including Cochrane, because all the evidence about a treatment is needed to understand its risks and benefits. Without a complete picture of trial results available, information is lost; bad treatment decisions may be made; financial investment into ineffective treatments are approved by governments and regulators; opportunities for better and more effective treatment are missed; and trials are repeated unnecessarily, duplicating effort and wasting resources.

AllTrials founders were Ben Goldacre, author of Bad Science, along with the charity Sense About Science; the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine in Oxford; the James Lind Initiative; the BMJ; and Cochrane.

Campbell Collaboration

Cochrane and Campbell have been closely affiliated since Campbell's establishment in 2000. In 2015 the two collaborations formalized plans to work more cooperatively and effectively together in a number of areas of common interest.

Partnership activities

The partnership between Cochrane and Campbell is formalized in a memorandum of understanding (MoU). Agreed activities in the MoU for the partnership between 2018-2021 are as follows:

  • Campbell Collaboration contributors are approved to use Cochrane systems for Review Production (Archie and RevMan). The use of these systems is provided on an as-is basis and no bespoke or custom development will be made. If further development is needed, it will need to be scoped and a fee assessed. By using these systems, Campbell Contributors agree to become Cochrane Members and agree the terms and conditions associated with that status. At present, there are no plans for a publishing solution from Archie to the Campbell website/Library. The Campbell Reviews developed using Archie and RevMan will be available in the standard format Archie currently supports (XML).
  • Streamlining editorial and production processes for cross-published systematic reviews.
  • Exploring how to offer training initiatives in areas of particular expertise to both organizations’ authors and editors.
  • Establishing closer collaboration on methods development, building on the extensive interactions already made (including Campbell’s adoption of adapted MECIR standards) to update and improve guidelines, standards and use.
  • Exploring inclusion of The Campbell Library of Systematic Reviews in a federated search function in The Cochrane Library. 
  • Exploring the development of a shared advocacy platform and common advocacy initiatives as both organizations look to raise their profile and promote evidence-informed decision making through more active advocacy and campaigning (possibly with other organizations committed to the same goal).
  • Joint communication around cross-published reviews and other joint activities and interests.
  • Exploring the possibility of holding more joint conferences between Cochrane and Campbell, including a Global Evidence Summit 2 in 2021.

Partnership Advisory Group

The Cochrane and Campbell Partnership Advisory Group meets four times each year and provides strategic guidance to further the relationship and collaboration between Campbell and Cochrane.

Member Representing Mandate until
Lisa Bero Cochrane May 2021
Sylvia de Haan Cochrane Supporting ex-officio member, contact
Karla Soares-Weiser Cochrane May 2022
Vivian Welch Campbell May 2021
Howard White Campbell May 2021
Julia Littell Campbell May 2021
Emma Thompson Cochrane Supporting ex-officio member, contact

Read the Terms of Reference for the Cochrane and Campbell Partnership Advisory Group.

Highlights from partnership

Choosing Wisely International

Choosing Wisely International is a collaboration of Choosing Wisely campaigns in over 20 countries worldwide. Choosing Wisely is a clinician-led movement which is committed to combatting medical overuse and ensuring high quality care. Choosing Wisely first launched in the United States in 2012, and has spread worldwide. The core principles common across Choosing Wisely campaigns are that they are: clinician led, multiprofessional, transparent, evidence-based and patient centred. Campaigns are led by national physician organizations and associations, who work with societies representing specialists or clinician groups to develop evidence-based recommendations of commonly overused medical tests, treatments and procedures that do not add value to patients, and may even cause harm. These recommendations are the basis for Choosing Wisely campaigns, and encourage evidence-based conversations about tests and treatments may not be beneficial, or even cause harm.

Choosing Wisely International is coordinated by Choosing Wisely Canada. Cochrane is exploring with Choosing Wisely International how Cochrane evidence can start informing in a more systematic manner the recommendations of Choosing Wisely campaigns.

Epistemonikos Foundation

The Epistemonikos Foundation is a non-profit organization whose core objectives are to bring evidence closer to those making health decisions through technology and innovation, primarily via the Epistemonikos database. The database was established in 2009 and at the end of 2016 included close to 100,000 systematic reviews. Cochrane’s partnership with Epistemonikos aims at improving the knowledge base for making decisions in health care and global health policy.

Evidence Aid

Evidence Aid started as a project within Cochrane. Evidence Aid’s vision is that those in need receive humanitarian aid in the most timely, effective and appropriate way possible. To achieve this, Evidence Aid’s mission is to inspire and enable those guiding the humanitarian sector to apply an evidence-based approach in their activities and decisions.

In doing this, Evidence Aid raises the profile of systematic reviews, including those published in the Cochrane Library, within the humanitarian sector. Relevant systematic reviews are added to the Evidence Aid resources, with very short summaries which are translated (currently into Spanish and French). This agreement to share and promote the Cochrane systematic reviews came in 2004 when Evidence Aid was established. Since Evidence Aid became an independent charity in 2015, it has expanded the resources to include non-Cochrane systematic reviews, but continues to assess Cochrane reviews in case of relevance. When reviews are of relevance, Evidence Aid contacts the Cochrane editorial group and the author to discuss getting the review on the resource page.

In addition, Evidence Aid has engaged Cochrane in the development of humanitarian specific Collections of evidence such as the ‘Health of Refugees and Asylum Seekers’ (published in 2016, jointly by Evidence Aid and Cochrane) and the ‘Prevention and treatment of acute malnutrition in emergencies and humanitarian crises‘ (which was published in March 2018).

Cochrane also took part in an Evidence Aid priority setting exercise to identify priority reviews for the humanitarian sector which was used by the Humanitarian Evidence Programme (HEP) to inform their programme of systematic reviews. Evidence Aid has also been represented at the World Health Assembly as a delegate of Cochrane, and has also included Cochrane in activities such as increasing the use of evidence in the Sphere Handbook (report available here) and the Geneva Evidence Lounge (Cochrane Switzerland). Cochrane was also a partner organization to the Evidence Lounge at the World Humanitarian Summit.

Guidelines International Network

The Guidelines International Network's (G-I-N) mission is to lead, strengthen, and support collaboration in guideline development, adaptation and implementation.

Cochrane and G-I-N formalized a partnership in 2014, agreeing to work together to ensure that evidence is both useful and used by people making decisions about health, whether they are individuals, clinicians or health policymakers from all over the world.

Partnership activities

The partnership between Cochrane and G-I-N is formalized in a memorandum of understanding (MoU). Agreed activities in the MoU for the partnership between 2019-2021 are as follows:

  1. To strengthen the relationships between guideline developers and Cochrane’s eight Network Review Groups:
    • Review and consider options to build upon technical solutions to facilitate interaction between guideline developers and systematic reviewers. This includes Cochrane Engage, as well as other potential technical solutions;
    • Facilitate contribution of guideline developers to systematic review agenda setting processes Cochrane Review Groups (CRGs) and CRG Networks are undertaking.
    • Provide regular updates to the G-I-N community of new Cochrane Systematic Reviews published;
    • Stimulate interaction by facilitating direct contact between guideline developers and review authors (for example by providing information about CRGs and the Cochrane Support team);
    • Provide information about Cochrane tools, resources and training to the G-I-N community;
    • Develop and communicate success stories illustrating how guideline developers and Cochrane Review Groups work towards strengthening the linkage between evidence production and use in guidelines;
    • Participate in each other’s annual meetings, focusing on discussing the needs and priorities of guideline developers and systematic reviewers, thus working towards better alignment of Cochrane Systematic Reviews and guideline developers’ needs; 
    • Cochrane to continue to provide free access to the Cochrane Library for G-I-N members via the G-I-N organizational website;
    • G-I-N to continue to provide free access to the G-I-N website, including the library, for five Cochrane contributors.
  2. To strengthen advocacy on evidence-informed healthcare, the following activities will be implemented:
    • Communicate experiences and results from the activities outlined under Clause I through Cochrane and G-I-N news and social media channels, as well as during Cochrane Colloquia and G-I-N conferences;
    • Promote evidence-informed healthcare and the roles G-I-N and Cochrane play using various external channels (i.e. conferences, workshops and the media). This could also be through the development of joint position papers.
    • Organize, jointly with other partners, the Global Evidence Summit 2 (2021).

Partnership Advisory Group

The Cochrane and G-I-N Partnership Advisory Group meets four times a year and provides strategic guidance to further the relationship and collaboration between Cochrane and G-I-N.

Membership is for a period of two years; renewable once.

Member Representing Joined in
Craig Robbins GIN September 2016
Holger Schunemann GIN September 2016
Amir Qaseem GIN November 2020
Miranda Langendam  Cochrane September 2019
Marguerite Koster Cochrane November 2016
Catherine Marshall Cochrane November 2017
Sylvia de Haan Cochrane Supporting ex-officio member, contact
Emma Thompson Cochrane Supporting ex-officio member, contact

Read the Terms of Reference for the Cochrane and G-I-N Partnership Advisory Group.

Highlights from partnership

GRADE

The GRADE Working Group (GRADE) was established in 2000 to develop a sensible approach to assessing the certainty in a body of evidence based on systematic reviews, to developing recommendations in health care. Its work has expanded to methodology for informing other health evidence-related products and decisions, in particular guidelines, health technology assessments, policy decisions, and coverage decisions. GRADE has more than 500 international members and a growing number of globally distributed centres and networks.  Over 90 organizations worldwide have endorsed the GRADE approach, which is pre-eminent among the available frameworks.

Joanna Briggs Institute

Established in 1996, The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) is an international not-for-profit, research centre based within the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Adelaide, South Australia.

The Institute collaborates internationally with over 70 entities across the world. The Institute and its collaborating entities promote and support the synthesis, transfer and implementation of evidence through identifying feasible, appropriate, meaningful and effective healthcare practices to assist in the improvement of healthcare outcomes globally.

MAGIC

MAGIC (formally known as the MAking GRADE the Irresistible Choice (MAGIC) organization) is a non-profit research and innovation programme set up to make evidence summaries and recommendations that work for clinicians at the point of care and to facilitate shared decision-making with patients. Established in 2010, the MAGIC project has, among a number of other initiatives, developed the MAGICapp, a web-based platform for preparing guidelines using structured data systems and validated methods.

Cochrane and MAGIC aim to develop and implement joint activities that support and further strengthen the use of health evidence by people making decisions about health, from the individual patient to international health policy makers, within the context of a digital and trustworthy evidence ecosystem for health care.

Wikipedia

Articles relating to medicine are viewed more than 180 million times per month on Wikipedia, yet less than 1 per cent of these have passed a formal peer review process. This opens up a unique opportunity for Cochrane to work with Wikipedia medical editors to transform the quality and content of health evidence available online. The partnership, formalized in 2014, supports the inclusion of relevant evidence within all Wikipedia medical articles, as well as processes to help ensure that medical information included in Wikipedia is of the highest quality and as accurate as possible. Trusted, evidence-based research can help people to make informed decisions about their own health care.

See also the Cochrane-Wikipedia project page for more information and for suggestions for how to engage in this work.

World Health Organization

Cochrane has been in official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO) since 2011.

Our official relation status gives us the right to appoint a representative to participate, without vote, in WHO’s meetings – including at the World Health Assembly, WHO’s decision-making body – allowing us to make expository statements on WHO health resolutions.

Partnership activities

Cochrane and WHO have agreed on a plan of work for 2019-21. Activities include:

  • Cochrane Review Groups will contribute systematic reviews that inform WHO guidelines and recommendations across all thematic areas of WHO.
  • WHO’s Guidelines Review Committee will share information re the guidelines in planning and development to facilitate timely response by Cochrane systematic reviewers where appropriate.
  • Cochrane will use Cochrane Response (aimed at facilitating rapid response) and its new Fast Track service (aimed at speeding up editorial processes) as mechanisms to speed up systematic review production when needed to ensure timely delivery of evidence.
  • Provide evidence synthesis to WHO on issues of relevance to Healthy Ageing.
  • Work with WHO in submitting applications to the Essential Medicine List based on Cochrane Systematic Reviews.
  • Work with WHO towards elaboration and implementation of the Essential Diagnostics List at country level.
  • Work with WHO on evidence synthesis and methodological issues related to de-implementation of health technologies and medicines

If you would like more information on the partnership with WHO, and how you can engage, please email Emma Thompson.

Cochrane’s WHO Working Group

Cochrane’s WHO Working Group aims to develop and strengthen the official partnership between Cochrane and WHO.

It does this through facilitating technical input around systematic reviews and evidence-informed decision making to the various programmes, initiatives and departments of the WHO, and through working with the WHO to reach people making decisions in health.

Membership is for a period of three years; renewable once.

Member Mandate started Mandate until
Lisa Bero (co-chair) 2015 2021
Erik von Elm 2015 2021
Paul Garner 2015 2021
Sylvia de Haan (co-chair) Supporting ex-officio member, contact
Carlotte Kiekens 2019 2021 (can renew)
Pisake Lumbiganon 2018 2021 (can renew)
Joerg Meerpohl 2015 2021
Celeste Naude 2018 2021 (can renew)
Karla Soares-Weiser 2019 2021
Emma Thompson Supporting ex-officio member, contact

Read the Terms of Reference for the Cochrane WHO Working Group.

Highlights from partnership