Join Cochrane Pain, Palliative and Supportive Care (PaPaS) on the 21st July to celebrate their 18th anniversary at the Saïd Business School in Oxford, UK.

PaPaS was registered as a Cochrane review group in 1998. We are celebrating with an afternoon event of topical presentations and discussions, followed by a drinks reception and evening garden party.

Places are limited; please contact us if you would like to attend.

Date

Thursday 21 July 2016

Times

• Lunch available from 12.30 (BST)
• Main event 13.30 – 17.00
• Evening garden party from 17.00

Venue

The impressive Saïd Business School, opposite Oxford’s main train station.
Address: Saïd Business School, Park End Street, Oxford, OX1 1 HP. UK. T: +44 (0)1865 288800.

Agenda

First session (13.30 – 15.00)

• Welcome
• Brief History of PaPaS
• Pain evidence- how evidence based medicine has changed the view of science or practice: short presentations from PaPaS Editors

Second session (15.30 – 17.00)

• Rapid presentations from PaPaS contributors: Where evidence meets policy and practice
• PaPaS in the Future: challenges and opportunities (interactive audience participation)

Evening event (from 17.00)

• Drinks reception and summer garden party, with buffet from award-winning catering team.

Contact

Please contact Kerry Harding at kerry.harding@ndcn.ox.ac.uk if you have any questions, or Tweet us at @CochranePaPaS using the hashtag #PaPaS18.
 

Useful links

• PaPaS website: papas.cochrane.org
• PaPaS on Twitter: twitter.com/CochranePaPaS #PaPaS18
• Saïd Business School: sbs.ox.ac.uk

Co-ordinating Editors for Cochrane Oral Health, Helen Worthington and Jan Clarkson, have been awarded honorary fellowships from the Board of The Faculty of General Dental Practice (FGDP) at the Royal College of Surgeons of England in London. They were nominated for the awards by Cochrane colleague Trevor Johnson.

A faculty of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the FGDP is the UK’s only professional membership body and provides guidance and education specifically for general dental practitioners and dental care professionals as part of its aim to continually improve practice. Fellowship is the highest award offered by the FGDP and is considered a pinnacle of achievement for those within the profession. It recognizes excellence in primary dental care and the commitment to professional development of its recipients.

Commenting on their awards, Helen and Jan said: “We are both honoured to receive the award. We recognize the potential to improve the quality of dental research in practice, where most of dentistry is delivered, and to increase its impact.” Both academics look forward to working more closely with the Faculty, representing all members of the dental team, in taking forward research in general practice and the translation of evidence for patient benefit.

Congratulations!

Vistit the Cochrane Oral Health website.

Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility Group celebrated their 20 year anniversary with a series of workshops, a symposium...and cake!

The Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility Group (CGF) (formerly the Menstrual Disorders and Subfertility Group) is concerned with the systematic evaluation of the management and treatment of menstrual disorders and subfertility. 

Welcome speeches by Sir Iain Chalmers and Professor Richard Lilford set the scene for the meeting and celebration. Keynote speakers included Dr David Tovey (Editor in Chief of the Cochrane Library), Dr Fergus Macbeth (oncologist and guideline developer), Dr Sheryl van der Poel (WHO), Dr Melanie Davies (NICE), Professor Ben Willem Mol, and Professor Siladitya Bhattacharya. Other highlights included pre-symposium workshops offering editors and authors the opportunity to further develop their skills and expertise, and a dinner gala at Balliol College. The full program can be seen here.

A warm congratulations to CGF on this milestone!

Visit the Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility Group web page.

#cochraneauthor Liz Wager joined us for a Twitter to chat to discuss new Cochrane Review on Interventions to prevent misconduct and promote integrity in research and publication.

Read an interview with Cochrane authors Liz Wager and Ana Marusic in Retraction Watch

Date: Wednesday 20 April 2016

Time: 2:00pm BST for one hour

Curators: Liz Wager @SideviewLiz and Nancy Owens, curator of @cochranecollab and part of the Cochrane Communications team

Hashtag: #cochraneauthor

Chat details

Chat transcript

Chat analytics

Please find below the main decisions by the Cochrane Steering Group (CSG) from the London meeting. If you have any questions about these decisions, please contact your Steering Group Representative. The full minutes will be available soon.

Cochrane Canada
Decision: The CSG expressed continued support for Cochrane Canada and appreciation for the extensive efforts of many contributors working to Save Cochrane Canada. Full details of this decision and plan will be available shortly.

Governance reform
Decision: Following initial consultation and a Strategic Session at the Mid-Year Meetings in London, the CSG agreed to proceed with the proposed reforms to Cochrane’s governance structures. The CSG discussed the feedback received on the proposals and is committed to ensuring a meaningful voice for Groups in Cochrane’s governance, and support for participation by contributors. The next steps will be to draft specific amendments to Cochrane’s Articles of Association, and a more detailed framework for the propose Council for consultation with all contributors. A final decision about the reforms will be made at the Seoul Colloquium in October 2016.

Review of structure and function
Decision: The CSG considered a proposal for changes to the way Cochrane operates arising from the recent review of structure and function. The key changes will be the introduction of centralized editorial processing and the consolidation of Cochrane Groups into geographic and topic-based networks. Cochrane Groups will be integral in the next steps of this work, with further details to follow.

Approved papers

• Plain Language Summaries pilot
• Environmental sustainability policy
• Data Protection Policy

Past and future meetings
The minutes of the CSG meeting in Vancouver in January 2016 have been approved and are now available.
 

Lisa Bero and Cindy Farquhar
Co-Chairs, Cochrane Steering Group

14 April, 2016

The Iberoamerican Cochrane Centre and the Clinical Epidemiology Service of the Hospital of Sant Pau will hold a conference of CIBERESP (CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública; Biomedical Research Networking Centres of Epidemiology and Public Health) on 21-22 April  2016. The focus of the conference will be on 'Research to Improve Appropriateness of Clinical and Care Practice'. This conference will be held within the scope of the CIBERESP and are open to all attendees.

The event will take place in the impressive Art Nouveau site of the Hospital of Sant Pau in Barcelona, Spain. The conference will include different talks, communications, and workshops. The attendance to the sessions will be free but you are kindly requested to register beforehand.

Check the programme in Spanish here. For more information please contact: comunica@cochrane.es.

The Cochrane Steering Group, in its January 2016 Vancouver meeting, approved a revision of Cochrane’s partnership policy. It also supported the proposed partnership framework. This framework is a useful tool for all Cochrane Groups when developing or evaluating their partnerships.

In 2016, more tools will be developed to support Cochrane Groups in partnership development. We expect these resources will be useful in making partnerships beneficial to Cochrane as well as to our external partners.

For suggestions and comments regarding external partnerships, please contact:

Sylvia de Haan, Partnerships Co-ordinator, Communications and External Affairs

Cochrane's Project Transform team was recently awarded a Partnership Project grant (2016-2018) of AU$930,416 from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.

"This three-year grant is very welcome," says project lead Julian Elliott. "This funding will help us find the best way to bring together automation, crowdsourcing and Cochrane's global network of contributors to transform the way evidence is produced. We'll expand our current research and evaluation activities, particularly across our automation and crowdsourcing initiatives, and set up demonstration projects with the Australian guideline development community. Ultimately the grant will help us move more rapidly towards effective and efficient evidence and guideline production."

Questions about Project Transform can be directed to transform@cochrane.org

Support for Project Transform was provided by Cochrane and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (APP1114605). The contents of the published material are solely the responsibility of the Administering Institution, a Participating Institution or individual authors and do not reflect the views of the NHMRC.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board, during its meeting in January 2016, decided to maintain Cochrane’s status as a non-governmental organization (NGO) in official relations with the WHO. Our report of activities for 2013-2015 and our plan of work for 2016-2018 (reported on earlier here) were both approved. 

This WHO decision is important. Cochrane’s official relation status allows us to attend, as an observer, a range of WHO meetings, and facilitates all other interactions with WHO.

We would like to thank you all once again for your continuing commitment and engagement in working with WHO, through your various Cochrane activities and roles.

Your suggestions to further strengthen our relation with WHO are most welcome. We would also like to know about your engagements with WHO – in meetings, expert groups, or other projects – allowing us to build on all existing connections in making the most of this strategic partnership. 

Sylvia de Haan, Partnerships Co-ordinator, Communications and External Affairs

Cochrane Learning Live is a new series of free monthly webinars aimed at anyone interested in learning skills or gaining knowledge and experience relating to Cochrane activities.  The series is managed by Cochrane’s Learning and Support Department. You can learn what topics are planned, watch videos of past webinars and find information aboout presenting here.

Next in the series is 'Consumers for the Terrified – Exploring new ways of involving consumers in the work of Cochrane' on 12 April. Topics will include new ways of getting consumers involved and the latest news about the Cochrane Membership Scheme, the Cochrane Crowd/Citizen Science project, Task Exchange and Cochrane Training. This webinar would be of interest to review authors, Managing Editors, Co-ordinating Editors, Cochrane Centre staff, consumers, and anyone interested in exploring ways of increasing the participation of consumers in the work of Cochrane. You can sign-up for this free webinar here.