Watch videos of Cochrane groups from different parts of the world who tell us how they contribute to Cochrane in their countries and languages.

Only about 6% of the world’s population are native English speakers, while 75% of people don’t speak English at all.

Many people do not have access to high quality health information, because it is not available in a language that they understand. We translate Cochrane evidence to make it more accessible, and to reduce the linguistic barrier to global evidence-informed health decisions. We have published more than 29,000 translations of Cochrane plain language summaries and abstracts as of November 2019.

Our translation activities are part of our wider knowledge translation programme which aims to ensure that people around the world have access to the health information they need, in the right formats and languages, and to enable people to use our evidence in practice. Cochrane groups in different parts of the world lead our knowledge translation activities in different languages. They translate Cochrane Reviews and related Review content targeted at different audiences, such as podcasts or blogshots. But they also write and disseminate news and other content in their language, do social media, work with professional societies, policy makers, patient groups or the media in their country, and offer training.

Our Cochrane groups who lead multi-language activities share their achievements and challenges in brief videos, and cover topics including volunteer engagement, machine translation, and knowledge translation approaches in their regions and languages.

Cochrane Brazil share how they teach EBM to journalist students and why it’s important.

Cochrane Croatia introduce some of their Cochrane projects including translation of plain language summaries and podcasts into Croatian, evaluation of different presentation formats of Cochrane evidence for different audiences including school children, and their collaboration with the Cochrane Oral Health Group.

Cochrane France tell us about their achievements and challenges in translating and disseminating Cochrane Reviews in French.

Cochrane Russia give an overview of their Cochrane activities, and their translation and dissemination achievements.

View other videos in our multi language series:

• Cochrane Iberoamerica have been translating Cochrane Reviews into Spanish for more than 15 years and tell us how their activities evolved over time
• Cochrane Iran explain how they implement Strategy to 2020 in Iran and present their Persian translation and dissemination activities
• Cochrane Japan introduce their Japanese translation activities and what motivates their volunteers to participate
• Cochrane Korea tell us about the importance and challenges of their Korean translation activities
• Cochrane Malaysia explain how they select and involve volunteers to translate plain language summaries into Malay, what motivates their translators to contribute, and their efforts to evaluate the quality of their Malay translations
• Cochrane Poland explain their plain language summary translation workflow and how they disseminate their translations
• Cochrane Taiwan ran a social media competition and asked their followers to create a video about how they use Cochrane Reviews
• Cochrane Thailand tell us about their history and structure, their training and Thai translation activities
• Beijing University of Chinese Medicine present their Simplified Chinese translation activities and volunteer team
   
• Automatic translation: Renato Benito, CEO of Nimdzi, talks about the newest developments in automatic translation and interpretation, and how Cochrane these technologies can benefit Cochrane

More about Cochrane multi-language activities:

• Learn about volunteering as a Cochrane translator
• Learn more about Cochrane evidence in different languages

Cochrane Crowd are running a citation screening challenge to coincide with the Virtual Cochrane Santiago Colloquium! Help Cochrane Crowd reach 48,000 classifications in 48 hours and be amongst the first to try out the all new, shiny CINAHL task! Details on this and how to join in below.

When is it running?
Start: Wednesday 4th December at 11:00 am GMT
Finish: Friday 6th December at 11:00am GMT
You can check what time that is for you here

How much time do I have to commit?
Of course, we’d love you to do the whole 48 hours! Just kidding. Any contribution is welcomed, whether it be a few five-minute grabs or a more focused effort (so you better make sure you have some screening snacks to hand to keep those energy levels up).

Sounds good so far. But I’m new to Cochrane Crowd. What is it all about?
Your best bet is to watch our 2-minute video introduction here.

What is the new CINAHL task?
For this challenge we want you to help identify possible reports of randomised trials (RCTs) that we have retrieved from a source called CINAHL. We haven’t identified RCTs from this source before. CINAHL is THE source for nursing and allied health professional research.

If I join in, what will I be doing?
Your mission for this challenge is to assess those records from CINAHL and decide whether you think they are describing a randomised trial or not. There will be a brief training module to complete if you haven’t done this kind of task before task before. Once identified, these studies go into a central register where health researchers and practitioners can access them.

Will there be prizes?
Of course! We’re glad you asked! Yes, prizes will go to the top three contributors. What are the prizes, you ask? A snazzy (limited edition!) T-shirt and a highly readable book – it’ll be like Christmas come early!

How do I sign up for the challenge?
There is no need to sign up for the challenge per se. You can just head to Cochrane Crowd anytime during the 48 hours of the challenge and get cracking!  If you’ve not been to Cochrane Crowd before, then you can sign up here.

Sounds fun, can I tell all my friends about it and get them to join in?
Yes please! We want as many as possible to join us. Feel free to share this page (share buttons below).

Is there a Twitter hashtag?
Sure is, we’ll be keeping in touch with #ColloquiumChallenge2019

How can I find out more?
You can email Emily and Anna from Cochrane Crowd at crowd@cochrane.org. And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!

We are delighted to announce our plans for Cochrane’s Virtual #CochraneSantiago which will be held online from 2-6 December 2019 and open to ALL Cochrane members and supporters.

Cochrane’s annual flagship event brings together the world’s most influential health researchers, scientists, academics, opinion leaders, clinicians, and patients to promote evidence-informed decision-making.

Whilst the recent, unprecedented situation of civil unrest across Santiago led to the cancellation of our face-to face Colloquium this year, with the support of so many contributors, we are pleased to welcome the full community to participate in Cochrane’s first, virtual #CochraneSantiago Colloquium.  Whilst we recognize our virtual meeting can never replace what we would have achieved together in-person in Chile, we believe that this unique week of content will be a fitting tribute to recognizing the extraordinary efforts of hundreds of contributors and Cochrane community‘s spirit of resilience and collaboration.

Virtual #CochraneSantiago will highlight the theme of ‘Embracing Diversity’. During the week of 2-6 December, content will be curated on our Colloquium website. We have created a dedicated page for each day’s content that will include posters, plenary content, bespoke curated materials from long and short oral presentations as well as pre-produced videos posted ‘as live’ on YouTube each day. In addition, we will provide ways you can interact with our daily content including discussion questions and social media conversations; and, we look forward to hearing from you on the wide-ranging discussions happening on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram using #CochraneSantiago, with Cochrane’s Content Creators helping to lead these conversations across our web platforms.

The Virtual Colloquium is an open invitation to all - whether you registered and were planning to travel to Santiago or not! More details on the final programme schedule and how you can get involved each day will be posted here soon.

We look forward to welcoming you and hope it’ll be a unique opportunity to fully embrace the diversity of voices that make up Cochrane’s global community.

Hold the date now - Monday 2- Friday 6 December 2019 for virtual #CochraneSantiago!

• Visit the virtual #CochraneSantiago website
• Learn more about this year’s Colloquium’s daily themes

While the Cochrane Colloquium didn’t go ahead as planned, the Cochrane Crowd Colloquium Challenge went ahead and gave us all a chance to come together, albeit virtually. As you can see in our promotional image, we’d set our target at 20,000 classifications across 48 hours.

And guess what happened? We actually reached three times that amount! What an outrageous and wonderful amount of energy you all have! In total, 61,774 classifications were made by 103 people living in 29 countries around the world. And participants identified around 1,500 RCTS!

Congratulations go especially to our top three screeners, Abhijna Vithal Yergolkar, Hariklia Nguyen and Abhijit Dutta. Thank you for your brilliant efforts and a prize pack will be making its way to you shortly. Hariklia has written the piece below especially for this blog.

My piece for the Cochrane Crowd citation screening challenge blog post

I was thrilled that I was one of the three top screeners! I would like to share that this challenge required special effort on my part because as I was participating I was also managing symptoms of Dystonia, a Neurological Movement Disorder. I wanted to share this to inspire other people with medical conditions to also get involved with Cochrane’s work and Cochrane Crowd challenges. And to say “congratulations” to other participants in the challenge who were also managing medical issues while working to make a difference.

The following encouraged me in this challenge:

• I wanted to make a difference! Identifying studies that health researchers and practitioners can access which in turn can help with treatments for patients or consumers
• Achieving something significant despite the disadvantage of living with a medical condition
• My cheering squad! (Australian Dystonia Support Group admins)  – Thanks for your support!
• Achieving while representing Australia!
• Eating chocolate as a reward while screening!

 Thank you to Cochrane for this great opportunity and congratulations to the other winners!

And if that wasn't enough excitement, we’re doing it all over again for the virtual Cochrane Santiago conference! Join us for the COCHRANE COLLOQUIUM CHALLENGE 2019! More info coming soon.
 

You can email Emily and Anna from Cochrane Crowd at crowd@cochrane.org. And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!

Do you have an innovative idea to engage with or involve healthcare consumers? Submit your proposal to the Challenge Fund for one of four awards worth £2,500 each

As part of the Cochrane Consumer Network’s Delivery Plan (Priority 2.2 to develop the role of Cochrane Geographic Groups in supporting consumer involvement) a Challenge Fund has been established to provide awards to support new activities in engagement and involvement of healthcare consumers and sharing examples of activities with the network of Geographic Groups.

Does your idea fit the criteria?

Four awards of £2,500 each will be available. Applications open in October 2019. Awards are to support innovative activities that address issues relating to consumer engagement and involvement, identified in:

• Strategy to 2020
• Consumer Network Delivery Plan,
• Knowledge Translation Framework, in as far as it meets the needs of consumers as a key audience
• The Statement of Principles for Consumer Involvement in Cochrane  
• The Centres and Consumers Report 2019

The Challenge Fund is open to supporting a range of activities under a very broad definition of consumer engagement and involvement, but funded activities will need to demonstrate how they:

• meet the needs of healthcare consumers, (i.e. patients and care givers)
• Involve consumers in the planning, delivery and reporting of the activity

AND at least one of the following

• Develop and test a new approach to engagement or involvement
• address the needs of consumers in areas of the world where engagement and involvement has not yet occurred
•  address the needs of “seldom-heard” groups for reasons including disability, ethnicity, sexuality, communication impairments, mental health problems, homelessness and geographical isolation)

Who is eligible to apply?

We invite submissions from Cochrane’s network of Geographic Groups (Affiliates, Associate Centres, Centres and Networks). An application constitutes a commitment to work with Cochrane and to be willing to enable approaches tested during the project to be further taken up as part of Cochrane’s ongoing work.

We will look favourably on proposals that:

1. are from Cochrane’s Geographic Groups in Low- and Middle-income countries
2. make clear how Geographic Groups intend to evaluate the impact of their innovation
3. make clear how Geographic Groups intend to disseminate findings to colleagues across Cochrane
4. demonstrate match funding by institutions, whether that is through resourcing or staff commitment.

Please note: We will not fund proposals specifically to support attendance at international conferences, or proposals for completed initiatives.

How and when can you apply?

The call for proposals is open and closes at midnight UK time on Monday, 9th December 2019. Awards will be announced shortly afterwards. We may require shortlisted candidates to make a further presentation prior to making a final decision about awards. The expectation is that the successful project(s) will commence in January 2020 and run for a maximum of 9 months.

A requirement of funding will be to provide a report of progress, at three-monthly intervals from the start of the project, final findings for sharing at the Cochrane Colloquium in October 2020 (at a meeting to be determined), and a written or video report for sharing with the wider Cochrane community.

To apply, please complete the application form available from rmorley@cochrane.org. The application should be completed either as an MS Word file or pdf

For any questions about the Challenge Fund, including submission of applications, please contact:

Richard Morley
rmorley@cochrane.org

The Anne Anderson Award recognizes a female member of Cochrane who has made a significant contribution to the enhancement and visibility of women's participation within Cochrane. The winner then designates the cash award to assist a woman from a low-resource setting with her Cochrane activities. Here the winner of the 2018 cash award reports back a year later.

The Anne Anderson Award is one of several prizes awarded annually. The goal of the Anne Anderson Award is to recognize and stimulate individuals contributing to the enhancement of women’s visibility and participation in Cochrane’s leadership. In the footsteps of Anne Anderson, many outstanding women continue to contribute and inspire other women to improve health knowledge for the good of their communities.

The Award recipient receives a plaque from Cochrane honouring her contributions at the annual Colloquium. She then designates the cash award of 3000 USD to assist a woman from a low-resource setting with her Cochrane activities, who should eventually provide a brief written report on how the funds have been used.

2018 Anne Anderson award winner, Kay Dickersin nominated Janice Bowie to receive the award money.

Janice Bowie is an organizer of Consumers United for Evidence-based Healthcare (CUE), a coalition of nearly 50 consumer and consumer health groups, in the United States. A mission of CUE is to promote the health of populations and the quality of individual health care by empowering consumers to make informed decisions based on the best current evidence. Janice's goal for CUE is to enhance the health equity perspective, including in Cochrane evidence. In CUE, populations are engaged as partners through CUE’s Clearinghouse of research and policymaking opportunities, e.g., research participation, guideline development, and peer review.  

Consumers contribute to many Cochrane reviews already and will contribute even more under Janice’s guidance.  For example, CUE consumers are interested in whether studies have included patient-important outcomes and how the totality of the evidence contributes to equity across populations. Janice’s area of research specialization is minority health and health disparities in the context of qualitative data. Janice will use the awarded funds, plus a matching gift, to engage consumers in participating in Cochrane reviews.

We spoke to Janice to find out her plans for the prize money.

How did receiving the prize money help you personally?
The prize money will help fund efforts to train and engage consumers in the United States as peer reviewers of Cochrane systematic reviews.

What are your future plans?
My goal is to increase the awareness of evidence-based healthcare and Cochrane among consumers in the United States. Specifically, my next steps are to promote engagement of priority populations (eg, racial/ethnic minorities, older adults, women) in research by providing training and facilitating partnerships.

What is your message to people thinking about submitting a nomination for the Anne Anderson Award?
I encourage people to consider nominees who are committed to the importance of consumer engagement in research and serve as an example to others in regard to their own consumer engagement practices.

To find out more about the Anne Anderson award, please visit https://colloquium2019.cochrane.org/anne-anderson-award

William (Bill) Silverman (1924-2004) was one of the founders of American neonatal medicine. He was honoured repeatedly as one of the pioneers in his specialty; however, he often evoked somewhat contradictory responses amongst his colleagues because he was in the habit of raising troubling questions about the scientific basis and ethics of his and their practices. Like many of the people who have helped to establish Cochrane, Bill Silverman could be regarded as a 'troublemaker'. As he reiterated frequently, however, criticism is a form of troublemaking that can help to drive progress. Furthermore, criticism should not be limited to examining the work of others, but should also include self-criticism.

Every year Cochrane recognizes the outstanding work of Bill Silverman with its own award. It is offered annually and explicitly acknowledges Cochrane's value of criticism, with a view to helping to improve its work, and thus achieve its aim of helping people make well-informed decisions about health care by providing the best possible evidence on the effects of healthcare interventions. 

In 2019, Nicole Skoetz won for her paper; ‘Methodological review showed correct absolute effect size estimates for time-to-event outcomes in less than one-third of cancer-related systematic reviews.' We asked her about this award and what it means to her.

What made you decide to enter for this prestigious Cochrane award?

The award was suggested to me by Elvira van Dalen, one of the co-authors of the paper. When we read through the description of the prize, which focuses on Cochrane's value of criticism, helping to improve its work and thus achieving its aim of helping people make well-informed decisions, we decided to apply.

Can you tell us a little more about what made you decide to enter for the Prize and the process involved?

The published paper, for which I received the prize, reveals some challenges in the interpretation of hazard ratios as absolute effects.

Together with the co-authors and the GRADE working group, we now want to make sure that reviewers and policy developers are aware of these challenges and know how to avoid mistakes. Since the publication of the paper, the GRADEpro software has been adapted and contains additional information for calculating the risk rates as absolute effects. An accompanying paper will be published shortly. We also offered a webinar and workshop to train authors and guideline developers.

We believe this is what is mentioned in the prize description: Critical science, which then improves the quality of Cochrane reviews and contributes to an improved decision-making process on health-related questions.

How did it feel to win? What does this award mean you, personally?

Thank you very much for this prize, it is a great honour to receive the Bill Silverman prize as it explicitly rewards critical science. I would also like to thank all the co-authors who contributed to the publication of this paper and who are now also involved in follow-up projects to solve the identified challenges.

I have been a member of Cochrane for a long time and as a senior editor for the Cancer network, I am very keen that Cochrane reviews have a high methodological quality. If the paper for which I get the prize contributes to it, I am personally very pleased.

• Read Nicole Skoetz's winning paper; ‘Methodological review showed correct absolute effect size estimates for time-to-event outcomes in less than one-third of cancer-related systematic reviews'

Dear Cochrane community,

Last week the unprecedented situation of civil unrest across Santiago led to the cancellation of the physical gathering of Cochrane's annual Colloquium. Whilst it has caused huge disappointment and inconvenience for hundreds of Colloquium delegates, we have been impressed by the generosity and perseverance to make the most out of this sad situation by our members and supporters.

On behalf of Cochrane and the Local Organizing Committee, I would like to invite those accepted for a poster or oral presentation to present their material virtually. Working with Cochrane Training, we will collect and curate the Colloquium content by topic and host them on our Colloquium website, the week of 2-6 December 2019. In addition, we will also be collecting plenary presentations and workshop materials and more details on these will follow.

Whilst we recognize our virtual meeting can never replace the valuable face-to-face interactions, we feel this week of virtual content it will be a fitting tribute to Cochrane community‘s spirit of resilience and collaboration. We invite the full community of Cochrane members and supporters to engage with virtual #CochraneSantiago  from 2-6 December, 2019. Please mark your calendars and look out for more details as we get closer.

The theme of this year’s 26th Colloquium is ‘Embracing Diversity’. We hope that the virtual #CochraneSantiago can help contribute to reaching diverse audiences with diverse evidence needs for diverse health decisions.

With my personal thanks for all your support and best wishes,

Dr. Gabriel Rada
Chair of the Local Organizing Committee
Co-Director of Cochrane Chile

Here’s how to submit your poster or oral presentation for the virtual Colloquium:

If you were accepted for a poster presentation, your poster and optional audio can be uploaded to the Colloquium website. We will curate the posters by topic and be back in touch with the wider community when posters are available to view.

To upload your poster to the Colloquium website:

1.  Log in to the Colloquium website
2. Go to “My submissions"
3. Click on “Edit” next to your poster abstract
4. Next to “Poster file” click on “Browse” to select a poster file (preferably a PDF)
5. Select the poster file from your computer and then click “Upload"
6. If you wish, you can also share an audio file of you ‘presenting’ your poster. Next to “Poster audio” click on “Browse” to select an audio file, select the audio file from your computer and then click “Upload"
7. IMPORTANT: When you are finished, click on “save"
8. The deadline for uploading posters is Friday November 8th

If you had a short or long oral presentation at the Colloquium, you can record your own screencast of the presentation and share that with us.

We ask that duration be 5 minutes for short oral presentations and 10 minutes for long oral presentations. We will upload screencasts to the Cochrane Training YouTube channel and share these on the Colloquium website, so they will be publicly available.

To submit your own screencast of your oral presentation:

1. Go to: https://www.dropbox.com/request/qDruuCMEzftqAUoF9UnV
2. Upload your file. It’s helpful if you name the file with the same title as your presentation with first and last name in brackets afterwards
3. The deadline for uploading presentations is Friday November 8th

Any questions? If you have any questions or need assistance with sharing your posters or oral presentations, please contact support@cochrane.org