Watch our webinar on how to improve your dissemination products and share Cochrane evidence more effectively

Knowledge Translation (KT) in Cochrane is delighted to announce the launch of its Dissemination Checklist - a new resource that can improve the quality, consistency and translatability of dissemination products that present findings of a Cochrane intervention review. 

The 18-item Checklist and accompanying guidance is for anyone in Cochrane who produces, or wants to produce, dissemination products or dissemination product templates.  It shares the components of a high-quality dissemination product that you can check against your own product, along with tips and suggestions to use when creating your product, and examples of applying the new Checklist in practice. 

The webinar videos  below covers the following:-

• Brief review of the checklist items
• How the checklist can be used in practice
• Where to find further support and resources to improve dissemination products

Additional Resources

• Webinar presenter bios and slides
• More information about the Dissemination Checklist
• Print-friendly checklist
• Checklist flyer
• Information on how to share Cochrane Evidence

Let us know what you think! Are you finding these resources helpful? We welcome feedback on how we can support you in your dissemination efforts. Tell us what you think about the new Checklist by emailing Stephanie Lagosky, KT Project Officer at slagosky@cochrane.org

Dear Community colleagues and members,

Despite the cancellation of this year’s Colloquium, Cochrane’s Governing Board was able to meet in Santiago, Chile, as planned. At the end of the meeting, we extended our grateful thanks to Gabriel Rada and the Local Organizing Team at Cochrane Chile for their outstanding work in preparing for the 2019 Santiago Colloquium. Read our full message here: https://www.cochrane.org/news/cochrane-santiago-message-cochrane-board

We also wish to give special thanks to Cochrane’s Senior Management Team and all their colleagues from the Central Executive Team.  They have worked tirelessly over the last few days, liaising with the wonderful local organizers, rescheduling meetings, making sure people were safe and helping them get home safely.  We and the Board are extremely grateful.

Following our time together in Santiago, here is a summary of our key decisions over the last couple of days. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact one of us at support@Cochrane.org

We are pleased to report that the Board approved:

• The strategic direction of Cochrane’s Editorial & Methods Department. Please refer to the Open Access agenda papers for more information;
• Cochrane’s Multi-language Strategy 2020-2022, including the investment for upscaled multi-language and Knowledge Translation implementation; in addition, this mandates the Central Executive Team to develop a wider implementation plan to integrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as part of a new organizational strategy post 2020;
• Three brand new organizational policies: More information about these policies and how you can use them to support you will be made available in the coming weeks.
  • Principles of Collaboration: Working Together for Cochrane (Code of Conduct) developed by Cochrane’s Council;
  • Complaints Resolution Procedure;
  • Organizational Accountabilities for Cochrane.
• The recommendations and implementation plan for the revised Conflict of Interest policy for the Cochrane Library, (more information to follow).
• Dr. David Tovey be awarded the title “Emeritus Editor-in-Chief.” This title is given in special recognition of David’s distinguished service as Cochrane’s first Editor-in-Chief, 2009-2019.

The agenda for this meeting and open access papers are available and the full Minutes will be available soon.

The next Governing Board face-to-face meeting will be during Cochrane’s Governance Meetings in Manchester, UK, in March 2020. 

With our best wishes,

Catherine Marshall and Martin Burton

Cochrane Co-Chairs

At the close of its meeting today, Cochrane’s Governing Board extended its grateful thanks to Gabriel Rada, the Local Organizing Team at Cochrane Chile, Cochrane Iberoamerica, and support from Cochrane’s Central Executive Team for their outstanding work in preparing for the 2019 Santiago Colloquium.

The Board and Senior Management Team share Cochrane Chile’s huge disappointment that it was necessary to cancel the Colloquium however all were in agreement that this was the most appropriate decision in the wake of the ongoing civil unrest in Santiago.

They have also been inspired to see the best of Cochrane’s collaborative spirit demonstrated by the organizing teams and every Cochrane member and supporter who came to Chile under these most difficult circumstances.

We send our best wishes to the staff of Cochrane Chile and hope for a peaceful resolution to the current political situation.  

Cochrane’s Governing Board

Tuesday 22 October 2019

An unprecedented situation of civil unrest across Santiago has led to the cancellation of Cochrane's annual flagship event, this year’s 26th Colloquium.

Chair of the Local Organizing Committee and Co-Director of Cochrane Chile, Gabriel Rada, expresses his thanks for everyone’s support this week.

Dear friends,

At this very instant, as chair of the Local Organizing Committee, I should be inaugurating the 26th Cochrane Colloquium here in Santiago. 

However, as you already know, an unprecedented situation of civil unrest across Santiago and the rest of the country, gave us no option but to cancel Cochrane's annual flagship event.

Even though it was an extremely painful decision, we are convinced it was the right one and taken at the right time.

I want to thank the Governing Board and the Central Executive Team for their unquestioning vote of confidence when we recommended cancellation as the only possible course of action. The safety of all delegates, both physical and emotional, and the empathy with the sad situation all Chileans are currently living have been the drivers of all the decisions made, even when there were many other things at stake.

I want to thank all the people that worked so hard in organizing this event: the Local Organizing Committee, the Scientific Committee, and the Central Executive Team. I also want to thank all the participants. We recognize the enormous effort behind each presentation, workshop, oral session or poster.

Marcela Cortés, Rachel Klabunde, Sabrina Khamissa, Julio Villanueva, Gabriel Rada
Not pictured: Eva Madrid, Pamela Serón, Jana Stojanova, Luis Ortiz

During the coming weeks, we will put in place a virtual space for you to share your presentations or posters, so you can share your work. Please do, and help us make this year's Colloquium into a truly unique experience.

The theme of this Colloquium was ‘Embracing diversity’. In my inaugural speech, I was going to draw a parallel between the diverse geography and composition of the society of this country, and the challenges that diversity imposes to Cochrane, the scientific community in general, and society. 

I was going to expose how far we are from addressing the challenges that inequities and diversity bring, specifically in the context of information overload, conflict of interests and structural problems that lead to massive research waste. Our chance to keep providing reliable evidence for decision-making to everyone, especially to those most in need, are critically endangered.

It is paradoxical that the same problem we wanted to address is the one that underlies the crisis in Chile that impeded us to celebrate our Colloquium. 

However, we can also consider it a reminder of the urgency of the matter. We are working to provide reliable evidence, useful to everybody, everywhere in the world. If we do not act now, if we do not address diversity and inequality now, then it might be too late.

To all those in Santiago, I wish you safe travels home. And we look forward to showing all your extraordinary work here in the coming weeks.

Dr. Gabriel Rada

Our Local Organizing Committee are working on plans to digitalize some of the key Colloquium content that was planned for the week, and more information about how this will be implemented will be shared here soon.

If you have specific concerns and questions today, you can email us at colloquium@cochrane.org; or phone (or WhatsApp) these support lines: +44 7539 997-549 / +44 7984 421-980.

Our best wishes,
Local Organizing Committee

The Annual General Meeting has been postponed due to the cancellation of the Colloquium.

It will be re-scheduled within the coming weeks. More details will follow.

In case of questions, please contact Lucie Binder, Senior Advisor (Governance & Management) lbinder@cochrane.org

With great sadness, we share the news of Dr. Arne Ohlsson's passing last week. He was a colleague and friend to many at Cochrane Neonatal, and a kind and nurturing editor, author, physician, and teacher. Arne was the director of Cochrane Canada from 1998 to 2005, a Cochrane Neonatal senior editor, and an author on countless Cochrane reviews.

In a recent Interview with Cochrane Canada, Arne spoke about his involvement with Cochrane from the earliest days to the present.

In addition to his work with Cochrane, Arne was a neonatologist at Women's College Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital, and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He was a professor at McMaster University and the University of Toronto. He was a recipient of the Distinguished Neonatologist Award and colleagues considered him "one of the most celebrated epidemiologists in Canada."

We add ourselves to the long list of those who will miss Arne, but we know the impact of his work will live on.

Cochrane Neonatal

Cochrane Crowd are running a citation screening challenge to coincide with the 2019 Cochrane Colloquium, and everyone is welcome to join in to help reach our goal of 20,000 classifications in 48 hours!

When is it running?

Start: Tuesday 22nd October at 13:00 Chile time (GMT-3)

Finish: Thursday 24th October 13:00 Chile time (GMT-3)

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.

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.

If I join in, what will I be doing?

Your mission in Cochrane Crowd is to identify studies that provide the best possible evidence of the effectiveness of a health treatment – the randomised trials. Once identified by the Crowd these studies go into a central register where health researchers and practitioners can access them.

Don’t be spooked by the science speak! You don’t need any prior knowledge to contribute to Cochrane Crowd.

Will there be prizes?

We’re glad you asked! Prizes will go to the top contributors at the Colloquium, and the top contributors taking part from other places around the world. What are the prizes, you ask? You’ll have to wait and see!

How do I sign up for the challenge?

There is no need to sign up for the challenge per se, you just have to make sure you’ve signed up to Cochrane Crowd before the challenge starts.

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).

For this challenge we’ll be tracking how many countries are represented in our participants, so we want people to take part from all over the world!

Is there a Twitter hashtag?

Sure is, we’ll be keeping in touch with #ChileChallenge2019.

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!

In May 2019 Cochrane, producer of the Cochrane Library, the world’s pre-eminent collection of high quality evidence to inform healthcare decisions, launched a competitive tender to establish its future publishing partner from 2021 for the following decade.

The tender attracted a wide response, and over the last few months Cochrane has been reviewing shortlisted proposals from suitable partners to decide with whom, and under what terms, our unique and world-renowned product in the health and healthcare sector will be published in the future.

Cochrane’s Governing Board has now agreed on a ‘preferred publisher’, and its Senior Management Team is negotiating with that publisher to try to reach a set of outcomes determined by the Board. A final decision is expected in November 2019.

Cochrane aims to identify a publishing partner who will increase the accessibility, awareness, use and impact of the Cochrane Library, promote greater innovation and the development of other derivative products and services, put Cochrane evidence at the heart of health decision-making globally, whilst also ensuring the long-term financial sustainability of the organization.

This competitive tender process is being led by Charlotte Pestridge, Head of Cochrane’s Publishing, Research & Development Department, together with a Project Board drawn from members of Cochrane’s Governing and Editorial Boards as well as its Central Executive Team[1]. The Project Board has been assessing proposals against rigorous criteria in four strategic areas: publishing services, open access, product innovation and financial sustainability.

Cochrane intends to announce its new publishing partner arrangements before the end of the year.  

• For more information on Cochrane’s publishing partnership and the tender process, please contact, Charlotte Pestridge, cpestridge@cochrane.org
• Find out more about Cochrane’s publishing and our health evidence: https://www.cochrane.org/

The agenda and open access papers for the Cochrane Governing Board meeting to be held at the Cochrane Colloquium in Santiago, Chile on 19-21 October 2019 is now available to view online, for information only.

Cochrane's governing body is the Governing Board. The Board is responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of Cochrane’s strategic direction. 

If you would like to comment on an item you can contact the Board: support@cochrane.org