Congratulations to Jackie Ho, Winner of 2021 Anne Anderson Prize

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 Anne Anderson Award is one of severally prizes awarded annually.

Who was Anne Anderson?
Anne Anderson was a contributor to the stream of thinking and effort that gave birth to evidence-based health care. A clinically qualified reproductive physiologist, Anne had an active interest in women’s health, co-editing the first edition of Women’s Problems in General Practice with Ann McPherson and contributed to Effectiveness and Satisfaction in Antenatal Care (1982), edited by Murray Enkin and Iain Chalmers. She was discussing with Marc Keirse and Iain Chalmers the possibility of co-editing a companion volume on elective birth, however her premature death from breast cancer in 1983 ended her involvement. Anne Anderson was 46 years old when she died. Iain Chalmers, Murray Enkin and Marc Keirse went on to publish Effective Care in Pregnancy and Childbirth (ECPC) in 1989, dedicating the book in part to Anne. ECPC, through its systematic approach to assessing the research literature, is widely acknowledged to have led to development of Cochrane.

What’s the goal of the Anne Anderson Award?

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. She then designates the cash award of 3,000 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.

"Jackie Ho, as a founder of Cochrane Malaysia and a leader who has involved women at all level of the Malaysian network, is an inspiration to all women in Cochrane.  I have seen Jackie’s encouragement and support in action throughout the Australasian network and at Cochrane meetings around the world.  Jackie epitomizes the Anne Anderson Award through her long-term contributions to the enhancement and visibility of women’s participation within Cochrane.” Anne Anderson Committe Co-Chair, Lisa Bero

The Cochrane Live event has been postponed until spring 2022. Please contact Cochrane Sweden for more information. 

Cochrane wants to welcome people, no matter who they are or where they live. The more varied perspectives we have, the better we can provide evidence to help inform health and healthcare decisions.
 
We have contributors, supporters and members from all over the world, but we know very little about our community and what is important to you. This is an opportunity to learn from our community and hear your ideas about how Cochrane can become a more diverse and inclusive organisation.
 
We’ve launched a survey and are also running small online meetings. You can take part by:

1. completing the short survey here now.  It only takes a few minutes. You don’t need to give your name. Please complete by 30 November, 2021.
2. AND letting us know if you are interested in attending a small group meeting to talk about your experiences of diversity and inclusion in Cochrane. If you are interested sign up here to stay informed.

    

We want to hear from you whether you are involved a lot in Cochrane or not much at all.  Your feedback will help to create a Diversity and Inclusion Strategy in 2022.
 
Chris Champion, Head of People Services, says “Cochrane is a worldwide organisation that aspires to be diverse and inclusive. We want everyone to be able to participate in Cochrane, regardless of who they are and where they come from. This matters to Cochrane, because if we are more inclusive, we will be able to provide better and more relevant evidence to our users who are at the heart of our vision.”
 
If you want to know more about this work then please contact Chris Champion, cchampion@cochrane.org

Cochrane is delighted to announce the launch of Cochrane Evidence Essentials modules in Russian

Cochrane Evidence Essentials is an introduction to evidence-based medicine (EBM), clinical trials and Cochrane evidence. It was originally designed for healthcare consumers (patients, care givers, family members), policy makers, and members of the healthcare team. In its original language – English – Cochrane Evidence Essentials proved to be especially valuable to the growing English-speaking community of patients, carers, and family members who work alongside researchers to co-create Cochrane evidence.

Professor Liliya Eugenevna Ziganshina, Director of Cochrane Russia, commented on the launch of the modules in Russian language:

“At Cochrane Russia we are delighted and privileged to contribute to the translation of Cochrane Evidence Essentials. This was exciting work, involving language, methodology, and clinical expertise. Producing Cochrane Evidence Essentials in Russian was initially begun by a resident in surgery from the Far East of Russia, Rouslan Zhasybaev, of the Far East State Medical University. Rouslan translated some of the major concepts into Russian in a form of Powerpoint presentation, and came to Cochrane Russia for advice with many concepts. This proved to be neither simple nor straightforward for understanding and translation! With Russian Translations Manager, Ekaterina V. Yudina, we delved into the project and it became not only a fascinating experience, but, importantly, an empowering exercise for all of those involved! It became one of the key components of Cochrane Russia Knowledge Translation.

We believe that Cochrane Evidence Essentials in Russian will become a wonderful and unique educational resource for all residents, PhD students, and researchers interested in evidence based medicine (EBM). Cochrane Evidence Essentials in Russian will give them a fascinating learning opportunity and equip them with essential set of skills and knowledge base for evidence-based research in health for clinical, research, teaching, and personal development.

This becomes even more important in the current Russian EBM environment, with growing recognition and respect for Cochrane and increased uptake of Cochrane review Plain language summaries, translated into Russian.

We hope that the Russian version of Cochrane Evidence Essentials will contribute to better training in EBM in Russia, promoting improved understanding and use of Cochrane Reviews in clinical decision-making, training, and research all over Russia and beyond.”

Cochrane Evidence Essentials includes four free online learning modules, presented in the form of a story. The learning is interactive, with things to read, watch, and listen to; quizzes; and ways to check your learning. There are links to further resources for those who wish to continue learning about a particular topic.

The modules have been co-produced by healthcare consumers and researchers, with the support of Cochrane’s Central Executive Team.

• The online modules in Russian can be accessed with a free Cochrane account at https://training.cochrane.org/ru/essentials

Dear Cochrane Members,

Thank you for voting in the recent Cochrane Council elections!

Agustín Ciapponi has been re-elected for an additional three-year term as an Author representative on the Cochrane Council. Agustín is an author on over 20 Cochrane Reviews and is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He will continue his work alongside fellow author representative Vanessa Jordan.

Thank you to all the candidates who stood in these elections. The vote count for the Council election is available upon request by email to elections@cochrane.org.

Best wishes,

Cochrane Governance & Strategy Unit

Earlier this year we announced the launch of the Cochrane Methods Network, which brings together researchers, methodologists and others with an interest in methodology for evidence synthesis.

The Methods Network now brings you a bimonthly newsletter which will share news of methods-related events, developments and opportunities across Cochrane's every-growing and unrivalled methods community. Each newsletter contains:

• Top methods-related highlights from across Cochrane
• Upcoming events or opportunities for you to get involved
• New resources from Cochrane, such as online learning modules, developments to Cochrane Handbooks and other training materials
• Chance to get to know those who lead Cochrane Methods Groups

See our first ever newsletter from August 2021 here.

Stay connected with Cochrane Methods Network by setting up your Cochrane account and signing up for the Cochrane Methods Network newsletter directly to your inbox (via the Communications tab)! You can also join the Cochrane Methods Network by completing this webform.

The Cochrane Methods team has defined a programme of work to improve the quality and impact of Cochrane reviews in public health with the support of the Methods Executive, Methods Groups and Public Health and Health Systems Network. The programme has been designed to foster collaboration between Methods Groups and Cochrane Review Group (CRG) Networks and to support the ongoing response to COVID-19. It focuses on producing high-priority public health reviews and delivering user-friendly resources to improve the planning, conduct and reporting of methods within them.

Why focus on public health?
Public health reviews, especially those relating to COVID-19, are often highly scrutinised and have wide-ranging impacts on policy and global health outcomes. However, public health reviews typically address complex questions and use a range of complex methods that are considered non-standard in Cochrane, and existing guidance is not always being applied accurately or consistently. In the Cochrane context, public health reviews are defined as those that include diverse sources of evidence (e.g., not solely RCTs), complex interventions that are delivered at the population level (e.g., policies rather than drugs or treatments), exposures that cannot be delivered in randomized controlled trials (e.g. studying the effects of a chemical or viral exposure), and outcomes that measure something other than efficacy (e.g., harms, process outcomes, implementation or costs).

How will the programme support review production?
The programme of work is based on the premise that high-quality, timely review production requires expert methodological support and pragmatic resources that help authors and editors translate Handbook guidance into practice. The topics and approach have been designed to bring CRGs and Methods Groups together to ensure the projects and their outputs are designed with the needs of Cochrane editors and authors in mind.

Though the focus is on public health reviews, the challenges faced within them are often encountered in other topic areas, such as choosing when and how to include non-randomised studies of interventions, assessing bias in non-randomized studies of interventions, planning a useful synthesis in light of complexity and heterogeneity, incorporating qualitative evidence, and reporting results when a meta-analysis has not been possible. By tackling the challenges in a COVID-priority area, the aim will be to develop, adapt and apply the tools more widely across Cochrane. The Methods Support Unit plays an important role in bridging the gap between CRGs and Methods Groups and will be embedded in the projects to support capacity-building.

What has happened so far?
The Cochrane Methods team mapped the most frequently cited challenges from two recent methods surveys of CRGs by methodological area and listed possible projects to address them. The projects were then shortlisted considering extent of author and CRG need, potential for impact, and the anticipated time and resources required to deliver a useful output. The projects have been refined with Cochrane’s Methods Executive and project teams are now being brought together. Each has been designed to deliver a practical tool or decision aid for editors or authors by the end of 2021 that harnesses existing theory so that it can be more easily applied.

• Project 1: Preferred and accepted risk of bias tools for assessing bias in non-randomised studies of interventions
• Project 2: Practical guidance to frame public health intervention review questions, define outcomes and choose appropriate study designs
• Project 3: Standard terminology to help authors describe different study designs appropriately and consistently
• Project 4: Practical conduct and reporting guidance for assessing risk of bias in non-randomised studies of interventions and/or ROBINS-I
• Project 5: Practical tools to implement SWiM reporting guidance to improve pre-specification and presentation of findings

In addition to the projects, plans are underway to deliver a suite of learning resources around qualitative evidence synthesis, and to house a bank of exemplar reviews showcasing best practice. A Methods Symposium will also take place in October 2021 covering a range of methodological challenges relating to public health reviews and complex interventions. The symposium will be followed by a methods implementation surgery led by the Methods Support Unit and aimed at CRGs in November 2021 to discuss the outputs that were developed and how they can support editors and authors.

How can I get involved?
Each project will be encouraged to use Task Exchange to call for volunteers across the community to provide feedback on the first draft of the tools and resources being developed. Those interested in getting involved are encouraged to create a profile or contact the Methods Team directly to enquire about other ways to contribute.

Additional resources:

• Introduction to a collection of articles in the American Journal of Public Health describing the issues in more detail, coordinated by Lisa Bero, Senior Editor of the Cochrane Public Health and Health Systems network
• Priority review topics guiding Cochrane’s ongoing response to COVID-19

New functionality is now available in RevMan Web extending the number of ways data can be inputted when raw data from study reports does not match the format required for meta-analysis. Data entered into the calculator will also now be saved along with the calculated output, which will allow authors to better document how raw data have been transformed to support verification, transparency, and updating. Analyses will show a tick under a calculator icon to indicate where calculations were required.

The Knowledge Base has been updated with information about how to use the new functionality, the types of transformation that are now supported, and actions that authors should be aware of that could result in saved data being lost.

Feedback about the calculator functionality is welcome and should be directed to support@cochrane.org.

The Plain Language Summary Project, which began in May 2020 to see whether a team of professional writers could improve the quality, consistency, and translatability of Cochrane PLSs, has now ended. The project was undertaken with the support of Central Executive Team staff and a number of Cochrane Review Groups (CRGs), and support from our language translation teams and Cochrane Consumers.

Elizabeth Royle, Plain Language Summary Project Manager and Cochrane Copy Editing Manager, spoke to Katie Abbotts from the Knowledge Translations Department about this project.

What was the motivation behind this project?
Although Cochrane has published Plain language summaries (PLSs) for all reviews for around 20 years now, their quality has been variable, with some PLSs being too complicated, technical and inaccessible to people who were not medically trained.  Since PLSs should be able to be understood by as broad a range of people as possible, from different countries and with different levels of education, it was decided that we should try to improve the situation.

What was the overall aim?
There were three main aims, which were to make PLSs easier to read, understand, and translate into languages other than English.

Why is the PLS so important to Cochrane and as part of Cochrane Reviews?
PLSs distill down the most important points of reviews.  They form the basis of many other products used for dissemination of findings, for example, press releases, blog shots and infographics. They provide a foundation on which other endeavours rely.

What happened in the project?
We employed three professional writers to see whether having dedicated specialists in plain language would improve the standard of the PLSs Cochrane published.  The writers wrote the PLSs for all reviews and updates published through the Central Editorial Service and the MOSS (Musculoskeletal, Oral, Skin and Sensory) and PHHS (Public Health & Health Systems) networks, plus one or two from another 21 Review Groups.  During the year for which the project ran, the writers produced PLSs for 166 reviews and updates from a total of 35 Review Groups.

What have you learned?
Over 450 people provided input for evaluation of the project.  They expressed a strong preference for:

• a standardised format for PLSs
• phrasing headings as questions
• putting the same headings in the same order across all PLSs
• having a ‘Key messages’ section at the start of PLSs

The Review Groups told us that having access to PLS writers was a tremendous help, and something that they would value highly if it were to continue.

How might PLS writing develop going forward?
The writers have developed a template for writing PLSs, and guidance to support people writing PLSs.  The template and guidance are currently being user tested (until 31 August 2021).  Once the testing is complete, and feedback considered, these documents will be finalised. We will then request approval from the Editorial Board to deploy their use across Cochrane.

At present, we do not know whether Cochrane will be able to employ people to write PLSs beyond the duration of this project.

• View the draft PLS guide and template and help with user testing