Dear Cochrane Members,

The Cochrane Council aims to ensure that Cochrane Groups retain an effective voice in Cochrane’s leadership and strategic decision-making.

We are delighted to announce that Stefano Negrini has been elected as a Field representative on the Cochrane Council alongside Craig Lockwood, who is also the Council Co-Chair. Stefano is the Director of Cochrane Rehabilitation Field and an author for Cochrane Back and Neck and Cochrane Stroke. He is based in Brescia, Italy.

• Learn more about Cochrane Council
• See the full membership of the Cochrane Council

Cochrane’s Membership, Learning and Support Services (MLSS) are evaluating our suite of online learning modules on conducting an intervention review, Cochrane Interactive Learning. We are keen to learn about your experience of using the modules; whether that is as an Author learner yourself, by way of support that you provide others as an Editor or Trainer, or even if you haven’t taken the modules but would like to share your thoughts on the learning you’d like to see. 

The results of this evaluation will help us strengthen and enhance not just the Cochrane Interactive Learning modules, but also all of the future online learning that MLSS offers, and make sure this is as useful to the community as possible.

We have now extended the deadline for the survey to 26 July. 

As a thank you for everyone who completes the evaluation survey (which takes about 15 minutes to complete), we are offering entry to a free prize draw, with a chance to win a £50 or one of five £25 Amazon vouchers.

We’re keen to hear from as many of you as possible!  Please take the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LFBBBWH

Chris Watts
Learning Manager, MLSS

The Cochrane Priority Reviews List is a ‘living’ record of Cochrane’s attempt to identify reviews that are of greatest importance to our stakeholders and are likely to impact significantly on health outcomes worldwide. The list is updated in real time as reviews are published and new titles added.

Some of the titles on the list are open to new authors. If you are interested in one of these open titles please contact the relevant Cochrane Review Group before submitting a review proposal:

• Continuous glucose monitoring systems for monitoring CF-related diabetes (Cochrane Cystic Fibrosis & Genetic Disorders)·Interventions for improving adherence to drug therapies and inhalers in people with cystic fibrosis (Cochrane Cystic Fibrosis & Genetic Disorders)
• Psychological interventions for improving adherence to inhaled therapies in people with cystic fibrosis (Cochrane Cystic Fibrosis & Genetic Disorders)                                       
• Interventions for psychosexual dysfunction in women treated for gynaecological malignancy (Cochrane Gynaecological, Neuro-oncology and Orphan Cancers)
• Hormone therapy in women with premature ovarian failure (Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility)
• Interventions for 'poor responders' to controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) in in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) (Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility)
• Progestagens and antiprogestagens for pain associated with endometriosis (Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility)
• Surgical interventions for the management of chronic pelvic pain in women (Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility) 
• Immunotherapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma (Cochrane Lung Cancer)
• Immunotherapy for small cell lung cancer (Cochrane Lung Cancer)

Please be aware that all other titles on the list have author teams in place.

Ruth Foxlee, Senior Programme Manager, Editorial & Methods Department
Email: rfoxlee@cochrane.org

Together with support from the Umbria Region Health Authority, Perugia, Italy, Cochrane’s Neurological Sciences Field is organizing a four-day Summer School 10-13 September 2019.

The residential course targeted to young physicians and trainees interested in cerebrovascular diseases, aims to present, discuss and appraise key methodological issues encountered in clinical practice with examples in vascular neurology.

Participants will learn to what extent and how methodology sustains clinical practice and the decisions that can be made accordingly, using cerebrovascular diseases as an example.

Discussions on evidence-based medicine (EBM), elements of statistics, and what is needed to appraise evidence will be conducted so that participants will be encouraged to promote clinical EBM research and systematic reviews in their professional activity to manage uncertainty.

After successful completion of the course, participants will bridge the research-practice gap in a context of evidence-based education through:

1.  knowing when and how to screen for particular conditions;
2. having an understanding of how to appraise the evidence from trials and systematic reviews
3. knowing how to read a Cochrane Summary of Findings Table;
4. understanding useful elements about statistics;
5. knowing the current debate on the meaning and role of EBM.

If you are a practitioner, neurologist, healthcare worker, researcher, guideline developer or policy-makers who wants to get more involved in Cochrane methodology and stroke medicine, find out more information and register here: https://neurosciences.cochrane.org/summer-school-2019 or contact Kathryn Mahan, Coordinator, Cochrane Neurological Sciences Field, kmahan@regione.umbria.it

• Find out more about Cochrane’s Neurological Science Field
• Learn about Cochrane’s Knowledge Translation work and supporting health practitioners in the use of synthesized evidence
• See what Cochrane training is happening near you

In this short film, created at the 2019 Cochrane Governance Meetings, we introduce the Cochrane Mental Health and Neuroscience Network.

Cochrane has created eight new Networks of Cochrane Review Groups  responsible for the efficient and timely production of high-quality systematic reviews that address the research questions that are most important to decision makers. This is the first in the series to be released, each network will be presented in a film like this, in the coming weeks.

This film introduces the team, what has happened so far and the ambition for what is to come.

• Learn more about The Mental Health and Neuroscience Network

Cochrane exists so that healthcare decisions get better.’ That is the first sentence of our Strategy to 2020 that aims to put Cochrane evidence at the heart of health decision-making all over the world. Here’s a look back at some key highlights of our work in the first quarter of 2019, from January to March.

Cochrane began preparations for its annual flagship event, Cochrane’s Colloquium in Santiago, Chile 22-25 October, 2019. During this time, many Cochrane contributors submitted abstracts as part of the scientific programme, this year ‘embracing diversity’. We also opened the call for hosts for the second Global Evidence Summit in 2021, a multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural event to exchange ideas about how we best produce, summarize and disseminate evidence to inform policy and practice, and using that evidence to improve people’s lives across the world. 

In Q1 2019, we saw the many ways people are using and accessing our health evidence. An international group of researchers found Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews to be the most referenced health-related journal on Wikipedia. The World Health Organization published guidelines for malaria vector control, drawing on seven Cochrane reviews specially prepared for them by the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group. We also started a new online series that collects stories about how Cochrane evidence is being used - from in the workplace,  in clinical practice, to in everyday life.

We saw our global reach and impact expanded with the Launch of Cochrane Colombia, Cochrane Ireland, a Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth satellite group established in the United States. Cochrane’s status as a non-governmental organization (NGO) in official relations with the World Health Organization was renewed at WHO’s Executive Board meeting in January2019.  We increased our reach with a younger audience, PhD and med students and early-career professionals with the launch of Cochrane on Instagram.  We also delivered training  with eight news Cochane Learning Live webinars attracting 548 attendees.

Cochrane’s Dashboard presents key metrics on our performance in any quarter including information on Strategy to 2020 organizational Target achievements. We use it as an tool to reflect on our accomplishments on a quarterly basis.

Here’s how we did in Quarter 1, 2019:

• See Cochrane’s QI 2019 Dashboard in full
• See our external Q1 2019 highlights
• Learn more about Cochrane Dashboards
• Learn more about Cochrane’s organizational Targets for 2019

We are excited to launch the 2019 Cochrane Author Experience Survey! If you are an author of a published Cochrane Review then please complete this important survey.

Cochrane aspires to have an excellent author experience made up of efficient editorial processes, high quality learning and leading technology. We have invested significantly in all of these areas in recent years, but we know there is still more work to be done, so we want to know what our authors think of the author experience we are creating and where the priorities should be for further development.

The results of this survey will help us to prioritise our future work and they will also influence Cochrane's organisational strategy beyond 2020.

We believe that honest feedback is important to help improve the experience for all Cochrane authors, so your name will not be collected.

If you are a published Cochrane Author, please take 15 minutes to complete the survey by Friday 12 July.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3DQMXFP

We will review the answers and report back at the upcoming 2019 Cochrane Colloquium and through our other author communication channels.

Thank you for your time!

Karla Soares-Weiser
Editor in Chief, Cochrane Library

Chris Champion
Head of Membership, Learning and Support Services

This Friday (31st May, 2019) will mark my final day as your Editor in Chief. I want to express my gratitude to you all for your forbearance, support, challenge and friendship over these past 10 years. Believe me when I say that having the privilege of serving you all has been the highlight of my working life. Life has never been easy, but I have learned such a great deal from you, had experiences I couldn’t have imagined, and found myself stretched (in a good way) every day.

I wish you all, and Cochrane, every success in the coming years, and hope to continue to contribute in different ways. I leave you in the excellent hands of Karla Soares-Weiser who has been a fantastic deputy and will be an even better leader. She will be fully supported by the other members of the Editorial and Methods team, who have all at various times provided me with inspiration, rescued me from danger and have simply been a joy to lead.

I have been lucky to have had the support of some wise and inspiring Co-Chairs, Steering Groups and the Governing Board. I owe particular thanks to Cochrane’s Chief Executive Officers, Nick Royle and Mark Wilson, my colleagues on the Senior Management Team, and the wider Central Executive Teams. I have enjoyed working with the various representative groups across the Editorial and Methods communities, and the new Editorial Board and Scientific Committee. The members of the Cochrane Library Oversight Committee have quietly provided guidance and wise counsel.

I want to finish by repeating my debt to all those of you who toil at Cochrane’s coalface as authors, editors, peer reviewers, information specialists and so on. If Cochrane handed out 200 Chris Silagy prizes every year, it would still not be possible to reward all of those who have earned it. You are the true heart of Cochrane, and I will join your number now with pride.

David Tovey

• Read the Cochrane Library Editorial: Reflection on 10 years as Cochrane's Editor in Chief