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Cochrane launches Cochrane Iran

 Cochrane launches Cochrane Iran

Cochrane is proud to announce its newest Associate Centre, Cochrane Iran.

The Cochrane Iran Associate Centre is located in the city of Tehran, within the National Institute for Medical Research Development (NIMAD) of the Islamic Republic of Iran. NIMAD is a national public granting body for medical research, which is under supervision of Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MoHME) of Iran.

Cochrane Iran will promote evidence-based decision making in health care across Iran by supporting and training new authors of Cochrane Reviews, as well as working with clinicians, professional associations, policy-makers, patients, and the media to encourage the dissemination and use of Cochrane evidence.


 

8 June 2017

Cochrane’s Bill Silverman Prize - nominations open for 2017!

Cochrane’s Bill Silverman Prize - nominations open for 2017!

In the words of Cochrane’s 2015 winner: “If you have an interesting article that you think fits the remit – submit it! Working in the field relevant to the Cochrane community, I know that there are many worthy articles out there for the award that are not considered because they are simply not submitted.” (Jamie Kirkham, Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics at The University of Liverpool, UK.)

 

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.

William (Bill) Silverman, MD

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.

Jamie Kirkham, a Senior Lecturer Medical Statistics at The University of Liverpool, UK was the 2015 recipient of the Bill Silverman Prize.

 

He wanted to share with us a little more about his work, and what made him decide to enter for this prestigious Cochrane award.
 

My first introduction to Cochrane was at the Cochrane Colloquium in Dublin 2006. I’d only recently started a Research Associate post in Liverpool. It was all new, but the work of Cochrane was very relevant to my research post. I’ve been a regular attender to the Colloquium since, and I’m now a member of numerous Cochrane Methods Groups. A colleague of mine won the Bill Silverman Prize at the Colloquium in Freiburg – I think this was the first time I became aware of this award.

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

At the time I felt the research submitted was a good contender for the award, it was published in the BMJ. The article criticized what systematic reviewers and trialists do badly in terms of the selective reporting of harm outcomes with suggestions for improvement – true to the character of Bill Silverman. There is also a bit of a competitive side to me – I won the Thomas Chalmers Award a few years earlier, I thought it would be nice to try and pick up the pair!

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

This is an interesting one. The Bill Silverman committee were pretty late in making the announcement in 2015, and I found out just before boarding the flight to the Colloquium in Austria! I was pretty thrilled – it’s an International award and I already had an airport beer in hand! My wife works for the Cochrane Editorial Unit - I may have mentioned it once or twice during the Colloquium, I was probably pretty annoying…

What’s been the impact of winning the Prize?

Winning the award is a good additional to the CV, particularly when it comes to promotions. It makes both you and your work stand out.

If you have an interesting article that you think fits the remit – submit it! Working in the field relevant to the Cochrane community, I know that there are many worthy articles out there for the award that are not considered because they are simply not submitted. As a current member of the Bill Silverman Panel, providing a structured justification on why you think the article is suitable for the award is of paramount importance – this demonstrates that the authors have thought more about the issues that need to be addressed.

Click here for more information and to submit a nomination before 30 June.

 

 

 

6 June 2017

Cochrane Croatia awarded full, independent Centre status

Cochrane Croatia awarded full, independent Centre status

Cochrane is delighted to announce that Cochrane Croatia has been recognized for its outstanding achievements in promoting evidence-based decision-making in health care by being awarded full, independent Centre status.

The Centre consists of longstanding, dedicated Cochrane enthusiasts located at the University of Split School of Medicine, where it is part of the Croatian Centre for Global Health.

Cochrane Croatia will continue to promote evidence-based decision making in health care in Croatia and the region by supporting and training new authors of Cochrane Reviews, as well as working with clinicians, professional associations, policy-makers, patients, and the media to encourage the dissemination and use of Cochrane evidence.

Read the full Press Release on Cochrane.org 

Visit the Cochrane Croatia website

6 June 2017

Find out why you should come to #GESummit17

Find out why you should come to #GESummit17

Early bird registration for the Summit closes this Friday, 7 July (23:59 SAST). Don’t miss out on the 11% discount!

Trying to make a decision about attending the first-ever Global Evidence Summit before early bird registration ends 7 July? Find out more about what's on the programme - plenaries, speakers, discussion topics, and other events - on the Global Evidence Summit site.


Global Evidence Summit
13-16 September 2017
Cape Town, South Africa
https://www.globalevidencesummit.org/

 

5 June 2017

Cochrane Austria awarded full, independent Centre status

Cochrane Austria awarded full, independent Centre status

Cochrane is delighted to announce that Cochrane Austria has been recognized for its outstanding achievements in promoting evidence-based decision-making in health care by being awarded full, independent Centre status.

Opened in 2010 as a branch of Cochrane, Cochrane Austria consists of longstanding, dedicated Cochrane enthusiasts located in the Department for Evidence-based Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology at the Danube University, Krems.

Cochrane Austria will continue to promote evidence-based decision making in health care in Austria and the region by supporting and training new authors of Cochrane Reviews, as well as working with clinicians, professional associations, policy-makers, patients, and the media to encourage the dissemination and use of Cochrane evidence.

Read the Press Release on Cochrane.org

Visit the Cochrane Austria website

29 May 2017

Get involved in the Cochrane-Wikipedia initiative

Get involved in the Cochrane-Wikipedia Initiative

We are looking for people to get involved with the Cochrane-Wikipedia Initiative. Whether you are new to Wikipedia and Cochrane, or you are a seasoned Wikipedian or Cochrane contributor, there is a task for you.

Cochrane has a commitment to producing and sharing high-quality medical evidence to as broad an audience as possible. As a way of achieving this, Cochrane has been working in partnership with Wikipedia since 2014 to improve the evidence base of health articles in Wikipedia, using quality, reliable secondary sources such as recent Cochrane Reviews to help improve the reliability of freely available health information.

The Cochrane-Wikipedia initiative supports the inclusion of relevant evidence within all Wikipedia health articles, as well as processes to help ensure that health information included in Wikipedia is of the highest quality and as accurate as possible. Trusted, evidence-based information can help people to make informed decisions about their own health and health care.

We have a list of projects that you can get involved with on our Cochrane-Wikipedia Initiative Wikimedia page. From updating Wikipedia references with the latest Cochrane Review or doing detailed content updates, there are a range of tasks for all levels of Wikipedia editors.

You are welcome to get in contact with the project leads, or you can keep an eye out for tasks listed on Cochrane Engage.

Find out more and get involved.

 

28 May 2017

Cochrane Japan moves from a Cochrane Associate Centre to full, independent Centre

Cochrane Japan gets independent Centre status

Cochrane Japan has been recognized for its outstanding achievements in promoting evidence-based decision-making in health care by moving from a Cochrane Associate Centre to being awarded full, independent Centre status.

The Centre consists of longstanding, dedicated Cochrane enthusiasts located at the National Centre for Child Health and Development (NCCHD) in Tokyo, Japan.

Cochrane Japan, part of Cochrane since 2014, will continue to promote evidence-based decision making in health care in Japan by supporting and training new authors of Cochrane Reviews, as well as working with clinicians, professional associations, policy-makers, patients, and the media to encourage the dissemination and use of Cochrane evidence.

24 May 2017

Decisions from the Cochrane Governing Board meeting, April 2017

Decisions from the Cochrane Governing Board meeting, April 2017

Please find below the main decisions made by the Cochrane Governing Board (previously known as Steering Group) at its meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, April 5-7. If you have any questions about these decisions, please contact a member of the Board.

The Board:

  • approved the Cochrane Knowledge Translation (KT) framework. Next steps will be for the Central Executive to develop the KT implementation plan.
  • approved the Cochrane Review Group Structure and Function Transformation Programme Sustainability Report; and asked the working group to carry on with its work. More information on this will be announced in the coming months.
  • approved the Fields Structure and Function paper (except for a proposed name change to Fields, which will be decided later); and requested that the CET work with Fields to develop an operational plan and continue to explore different models for Fields to take on review production.
  • approved membership thresholds with a few modifications to the requirements for membership.
  • approved the funding request to assist the Australian satellite groups with strategic support funding.
  • approved the recommended changes to the electoral procedures for the Governing Board, with the additional qualification that all official communications be under the scope of the promotion policy and should only be used to encourage members to vote, with no references to specific candidates. The new policies on canvassing and candidate promotion will be added to the Governing Board membership policy and electoral procedures. Nominations for the next round of Board members will open in the next three weeks.
  • approved the recommendation from the Finance, Audit & Investment Committee that trustee roles within Cochrane remain unremunerated except under exceptional circumstances.
  • approved the establishment of the three new Cochrane Centres in Austria, Croatia and Japan (all three were previously Associate Centres).
  • reviewed the latest financial monitoring report of Groups. In future, Groups who fail to complete the financial reports six months’ after the deadline will be deregistered.
  • asked the Funding Arbiter to undertake a new audit of compliance in circa 12 months’ time
  • agreed the proposed changes to the CEU review screening programme.
  • approved the 2016 Trustees Report & Financial Statements

The Agenda and open access papers can be found here. The full Minutes will be available soon.

The next Governing Board face-to-face meeting is 10-12 September 2017 in Cape Town, South Africa.

12 April 2017

22 May 2017

Cochrane in numbers: January–March 2017

Cochrane in numbers: January–March 2017

Cochrane’s organizational Dashboard presents our achievements in key metrics.
 
We use it as an excellent tool to reflect on our accomplishments on a quarterly basis.
 
Here are just a few highlights from Q1 2017:

  • Cochrane Library use in Q1 shows a 35% year on year increase in demand.
  • Cochrane Crowd now has over 5,000 members
  • Covidence usage growing quickly in Cochrane, with a 206% increase in total users compared with Q1 2016

See Cochrane’s QI Dashboard in full here: http://community.cochrane.org/organizational-info/resources/strategy-2020/dashboard
 
Find out more about Cochrane’s organizational Targets for 2017, here: http://community.cochrane.org/news/strategy-2020-2017-targets

18 May 2017

Cochrane launches Cochrane Sweden

Cochrane launches Cochrane Sweden

Cochrane is proud to announce its newest Associate Centre, Cochrane Sweden.

The new Cochrane Sweden Centre is located in the city of Lund, and is affiliated with the Department of Research & Development / Section for HTA Analysis, Skåne University Hospital, in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Lund, Sweden, and with the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen.

 

Cochrane Sweden will be co-ordinated and led by its new Centre Director, Matteo Bruschettini, who will offer methodological support, mentoring, and supervision of randomized clinical trials.

 

Read the full press release on Cochrane.org

Visit the Cochrane Sweden website

 

15 May 2017
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