Friday, January 27, 2023

Cochrane London 2023: Forward together for trusted evidence
4-6 September 2023
Central London, UK

Cochrane UK is delighted to be hosting the  Cochrane Colloquium at the Queen Elizabeth II (QEII) Centre in London, UK from the 4 to 6 of September 2023, with satellite events and meetings on the 3rd September.

Cochrane holds an annual conference, known as a Colloquium, that brings together Cochrane researchers, clinical professionals, early career professionals, patients and carers, policymakers, and anyone interested in evidence synthesis and evidence-based healthcare. The events are a mix of keynote speakers, training opportunities, workshops, presentations, and a lively social and networking atmosphere. They are an exciting opportunity for a community of evidence synthesis enthusiasts to share, learn, and connect.  

The deadline for submissions has been extended until Monday 6 March 2023 (23:59 GMT)

The theme of the Colloquium is 'Forward together for trusted evidence', which explores the challenges for the future around the trustworthiness of healthcare information whilst also celebrating 30 years of producing trusted evidence. 

We invite abstract submissions for the following streams: producing trusted evidence; advocating for trusted evidence; informing health and care decisions; and co-production and working together. 

We recognize that everything Cochrane does is about and for patients and other health consumers. We ask that all abstract submissions consider the impact on patients and healthcare consumers. In particular, we welcome submissions that are co-produced, co-presented or co-designed with patients or other healthcare consumers.

If you are planning to submit an abstract, please see our guidance and recommendations:

• Abstract submission guidance (for posters and oral presentations)
• Workshop submission guidance 

 Catherine Spencer, Cochrane CEO said, “The Cochrane Colloquium will bring people together in one place to discuss, develop and promote Cochrane’s work. I am looking forward to a packed programme at my first Colloquium and encourage you to submit your contributions now.”

Martin Burton, Director of Cochrane UK, said: “We look forward to receiving your abstract submissions for London 2023. You can now submit abstracts for posters, oral presentations, or workshops – and we have guidance to help you.” 

We invite everyone to visit the Colloquium website for all information related to the Colloquium as it's released, including submissions for abstracts and awards/prizes, registration, stipend applications, and the event programme.

• Abstract submission guidance
• Workshop submission guidance 
• Colloquium website 
• #CochraneLondon
• Press contact: Katie Abbotts, Cochrane UK

 

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Title: Head of Fundraising
Specifications: Permanent – Full Time
Salary: £60K per annum
Location: Ideally based in the UK, Germany or Denmark. Candidates from the rest of the world will be considered; however, Cochrane’s Central Executive Team is only able to offer consultancy contracts outside these countries (1-year fixed-term contracts)
Directorate: Development
Closing date: 21 Feb, 2023

Cochrane is an international charity. For 30 years we have responded to the challenge of making vast amounts of research evidence useful for informing decisions about health. We do this by synthesising research findings and our work has been recognised as the international gold standard for high quality, trusted information.

Cochrane's strength is in its collaborative, global community. We have 110,000+ members and supporters from more than 220 countries. Though we are spread out across the globe, our shared passion for health evidence unites us. Our Central Executive Team supports this work and is divided into five directorates: Evidence Production and Methods, Publishing and Technology, Development, and Finance and Corporate Services.

The Head of Fundraising will lead a small and dedicated team to provide the necessary vision, leadership, and fundraising skills which will enable the organisation to achieve its fundraising targets and organisational Development Strategy. They will have substantial international fundraising and management experience, a talent for building relationships and a proven track record in securing funds from international institutions, statutory sources, major international trusts and foundations, and major donors.

Don’t have every single qualification? We know that some people are less likely to apply for a job unless they are a perfect match. At Cochrane, we’re not looking for “perfect matches.” We’re looking to welcome people to our diverse, inclusive, and passionate workplace. So, if you’re excited about this role but don’t have every single qualification, we encourage you to apply anyway. Whether it’s this role or another one, you may be just the right candidate.

Our organization is built on four core values: Collaboration: Underpins everything we do, locally and globally. Relevant: The right evidence at the right time in the right format. Integrity: Independent and transparent. Quality: Reviewing and improving what we do, maintaining rigour and trust.

You can expect:

• An opportunity to truly impact health globally
• A flexible work environment
• A comprehensive onboarding experiences
• An environment where people feel welcome, heard, and included, regardless of their differences

Cochrane welcomes applications from a wide range of perspectives, experiences, locations and backgrounds; diversity, equity and inclusion are key to our values.

How to apply

• For further information on the role and how to apply, please click here.
• The deadline to receive your application is 21st Feb, 2023.
• The supporting statement should indicate why you are applying for the post, and how far you meet the requirements, using specific examples.
• Read our Recruitment Privacy Statement

Wednesday, January 25, 2023 Category: Jobs

Cochrane is delighted to announce the availability of RevMan Web, its popular, web-based systematic-review production software, to the wider academic community beyond Cochrane – to support evidence synthesis development and evidence-based medicine education. Cochrane expects interest in use of the tool from those in universities and medical schools, and many other research sectors.

RevMan Web facilitates the creation of meta-analyses, forest plots, risk-of-bias tables, and other systematic review elements. It is acknowledged to be easy-to-use – and is also widely used in learning or training about systematic review production.

Cochrane is making RevMan Web available for use by institutions or individuals for their own systematic review development work. The product is presented on a Software-as-a-Service basis: Cochrane offers a hosted service, comprising the software and cloud storage of all review data uploaded. 

Laura Ingle, Cochrane’s Director of Publishing and Technology, says this is a hugely positive step forward: “Cochrane’s investment and development of RevMan Web has allowed the preparing and maintaining of Cochrane Reviews to reach our high standards and methodologies – making Cochrane reviews the gold standard in health evidence. Cochrane is committed to making RevMan Web the platform of choice for all systematic review production, and now we are enabling access to RevMan Web for the wider review community at a reasonable and affordable cost.

"In addition to reviews of studies of the effects of healthcare interventions, you can use RevMan Web to write reviews that synthesize qualitative evidence, reviews of prognosis studies, reviews of studies of methodology, diagnostic test accuracy reviews, and overviews of reviews. RevMan Web is easy to use, is a safe and central place to manage all reviews, and allows collaboration across people to work on the same project. With its included learning and training materials, it also makes it a great training tool for teaching systematic review techniques. 

"Cochrane authors have been using RevMan for 5 years and we are excited to offer this systematic review and meta-analysis software to individual researchers, those working on reviews together, and to those looking for licences for their university. It’s a great tool for those generating one-off meta-analyses and forest plots or conducting their own systematic reviews.”

Free access is available in Research4Life low and middle-income countries and to Cochrane Review authors working on Cochrane Reviews. Cochrane authors working on non-Cochrane reviews, Cochrane Members, students,  and academics are eligible for a discounted rate. 

To find out more:

• Visit the RevMan Web website
•  RMWsubscriptions@cochrane.org

Friday, March 24, 2023

Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Dr Jenny McSharry, Health Psychologist and lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Galway, explains what systematic reviews are and why they are a particularly trustworthy source of health evidence. 

Dr Jenny Mc Sharry was supported by an Evidence Synthesis Ireland Writing Mentorship (Grant code ESI-2021-001) and this blog post was originally posted on Evidently Cochrane.

When we are diagnosed with a new condition, experience a worrying symptom or need to make a health decision for ourselves or our loved ones, it can be hard to know where to turn. How often have we found ourselves unable to sleep, alone at 3AM, searching online for answers to questions we never thought we would have to ask?  In times of anxiety and uncertainty, how can we know what health evidence to trust when we need it most?

When looking for reliable information to help with health decisions, reviews of evidence, in particular systematic reviews, can be a good place to start.

Systematic reviews of multiple studies can be useful for health decisions

Reviews that bring together and summarise the existing evidence are more reliable than one research study, or one person’s opinion or experience. Lots of things can affect the findings of a research study and we can have more confidence in reviews that bring together lots of studies. There is more information on why Personal experiences or anecdotes (stories) are an unreliable basis for assessing the effects of most treatments on the Evidently Cochrane blog.

Systematic reviews are seen as the gold-standard of research evidence. A systematic review is a type of review that tries to find, assess, and summarise all the evidence that meets pre-specified criteria to answer a specific question. Researchers who complete systematic reviews follow a number of key steps to make their findings more trustworthy.

Systematic reviews summarise evidence related to a specific question

Systematic reviews look for evidence that might help answer a specific question, and clearly outline this question from the start. For example, a systematic review Antihistamines for motion sickness was done to find out if  medicines used for allergy symptoms (antihistamines) work and are safe in preventing travel (motion) sickness. The review summarises evidence on how antihistamines compare with dummy treatment (placebo), no treatment, and other medicines. This review is useful if you want to find evidence about medicines for travel sickness, but not if you want to know if you should avoid reading or drink ginger tea while travelling. When a review clearly states its focus, it helps us judge whether it is relevant and useful to us.

Systematic reviews aim to find all studies that meet certain criteria

Systematic reviews researchers try to find and include all studies relevant to a specific question. This is important, as we want all relevant information to be available to us when making a health decision. When using evidence from a review to decide if we should start a new treatment for example, we want to be sure that studies that found benefits, studies that found harms, and studies that found little or no difference, are just as likely to have been included.

Systematic review researchers try to find all relevant studies by clearly outlining the sources they will search, and by making a list of the criteria they will use to decide if studies should be included. For example, in our review Video calls for reducing social isolation and loneliness in older people, we wanted to find out if older people who used video calls to keep in touch with family and friends feel less lonely than those who did not. For this review, we needed to decide on what we meant by older adults, as the findings might be different for people aged 65 and older, or people aged 70 and older. For this review, we decided to include studies of people aged 65 and older and made it clear when reporting the findings that this was the group we had focused on.

Systematic review researchers clearly state the methods they will use to identify studies before starting the review. Other researchers should be able to use these methods and find the same set of studies.

Systematic reviews assess and report on the quality of evidence

When reading reviews of evidence, it is important to know how many relevant studies there are, but also to know if the studies are of good quality. Even if a number of studies find that a treatment is beneficial, we may not want to choose this treatment if we find out that the number of people included in the studies was very small, or that the way in which people were identified to take part in the studies was not clear. For a systematic review, researchers assess if the methods used in the included studies were appropriate. Researchers then make a judgement on the level of certainty we can have in the overall evidence, based on whether the included studies were done well or not.

Finding relevant systematic reviews: Where to look?

When it comes to trustworthiness, not all information we find is equal, and it is good to know that systematic reviews can be helpful in making health decisions. However, when feeling anxious about a health condition or symptom, or when trying to make an urgent health decision, it can be hard to know how to find relevant systematic reviews.

Cochrane is an independent global organisation that aims to provide high-quality evidence to inform decisions about health and care. Cochrane systematic reviews are published online in the Cochrane Library. The Cochrane Library is free to access for people in the UK and Ireland (and in many other countries). You can search by topic, and the reviews all have a Plain Language Summary. The blogs here on Evidently Cochrane aim to make health evidence easy to understand and use by providing summaries of Cochrane Reviews in context, often alongside patients’ and health professionals’ experiences. Evidently Cochrane includes an A-Z list of topics to make it easier to search for relevant evidence, and can be a good place to start when supporting family and friends or making choices about our own health.

What else can you do to work out if health information is trustworthy?

If you are interested in finding out more about health information and what we can trust, the blog, Making health decisions: things that can help, looks at some key things to consider to help us to make the right decision and to reduce the risk of regretting our choices later on. The blog also reminds us that summaries of research evidence are just one part of how we make health decisions, and our own preferences and values and the views of healthcare professionals are also very important. The blog includes lots of resources to help you think critically about health information and to support your decision-making.

• Learn more about health evidence in our free Cochrane Evidence Essentials resource
• Read more Evidently Cochrane blogs
• Join in on the conversation on Twitter with @jenmcsharry @CochraneUK or leave a comment on the blog

Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Monday, January 23, 2023

Friday, January 20, 2023

Friday, January 20, 2023

Family-centred care is a way of providing care that focuses on the needs of children while providing planned care around the whole family unit. A new Cochrane review published recently found there was a small improvement in the overall health and well-being of Indigenous children and their families when they participated in family-centred care programmes at a primary healthcare service.

‘Family centred-care is not new,’ says lead author Dr Natalie Strobel, Senior Research Fellow at Edith Cowan University’s Centre for Improving Health Services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Families. ‘Aboriginal Medical Services have been doing this for years. For example, they don’t just immunise babies, they talk to mums, aunts, uncles, grandparents and everybody that’s part of that family unit – trying to ensure that everybody's getting care. That’s both health and social care, so it might be making sure there’s appropriate housing, referrals to services that they needed or for other types of support.’

‘We know that primary healthcare, particularly Indigenous-led services, are well placed to deliver services that reflect the needs of Indigenous children and their families. Of our author team of nine, four are Aboriginal and have worked in health services as nurses and midwives for a long time. Families want primary healthcare services that both support them and recognise Indigenous ways of knowing and doing business. This can be delivered through environmental, communication, educational, counselling, and family support approaches.’

A key finding of this new review was that family-centred care delivered by primary healthcare services may improve the overall health and well-being of children and their families, however, due to a range of factors, the evidence was rated as very low certainty. There was also evidence to suggest that families who participated in family-centred care increased their parenting knowledge and awareness to a small degree. However, for all other outcomes it was unclear whether family-centred care improves specific child health and well-being outcomes. Ultimately more high quality trials are needed to generate evidence to determine whether family-centred care improves the health and well-being of Indigenous children.

‘We consider family-centred care to be really promising, but we’re not confident in the evidence for a range of reasons, which are quite complex,’ Natalie says. ‘For example, people in the studies were aware of what intervention they were getting, many people did not come back to report their results, and not all the studies reported the information we were interested in. Also, some of the issues around low quality of evidence are really hard for communities that are doing this type of work to get around.’

‘For instance, in the United States you're delivering the intervention on a reservation and there's not a huge number of people to do this work. Often the person who delivers the intervention also collects the data. We know that's got a significant level of bias involved in it, but it's also very pragmatic, that's what happens and how it has to work because there's not enough people to complete the project. This highlights the challenges of conducting high quality studies, and underscores the need to build capacity and support people in communities.’

‘I think with the advent of this type of research, it will give people an idea of what's going on in the field so that they know where potentially they could identify and collect better evidence to add to this emerging evidence base. Ultimately it is quite a tricky space, and realistically when you are trying to do things that are good for your community, you have to make allowances and be pragmatic about how research is delivered.’

‘Overall, this was a huge and complex review that was really challenging to deliver but we’re so pleased we did,’ Natalie says. ‘I really have to hand it to the team though. It was their sheer persistence that delivered this review, and the reward now for us is having this really high quality piece of work that people from health services can use to show how effective their programs are. We wanted to support local services to advocate for themselves and now they can use this information as they need – either to show where they might need to make changes or to demonstrate that what they're doing is effective and benefits children, families and communities. They are really making a difference.’

Strobel NA, Chamberlain C, Campbell SK, Shields L, Bainbridge RG, Adams C, Edmond KM, Marriott R, McCalman J. Family‐centred interventions for Indigenous early childhood well‐being by primary healthcare services. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2022, Issue 12. Art. No.: CD012463. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD012463.pub2.

• Read the full systematic Review

Written by  Shauna Hurley, Cochrane Australia 

 

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Physical exercise can help to improve the severity of movement-related symptoms and the quality of life in people with Parkinson’s Disease. Findings from the first Cochrane review of the available evidence found that any type of structured exercise is better than none.

The Cochrane Movement Disorders review looked at 156 randomised controlled trials comparing physical exercise with no physical exercise or with different types of exercise, and it included a total of 7,939 people from around the world, making it the largest and most comprehensive systematic review to study the effects of physical exercise in people with Parkinson’s Disease. 

The review from Cochrane, a collaboration of independent, international experts, was led by Dr Elke Kalbe, Professor of Medical Psychology at the University of Cologne, Germany. It found that physical exercise ranging from dance, water-based exercise, strength and resistance exercise and endurance exercise, to tai chi, yoga and physiotherapy, made mild to large improvements to the severity of movement-related (‘motor’) symptoms and quality of life. 

“Parkinson’s Disease is a progressive disorder of the nervous system that mostly affects people over 60,” said Professor Kalbe. “Symptoms begin gradually and include movement problems such as trembling, stiffness, slowness of movement and balance, and lack of coordination. People can also have emotional and mood problems, fatigue, sleep problems and cognitive difficulties. Parkinson’s Disease cannot be cured, but the symptoms can be relieved, and physiotherapy or other forms of exercise may help too. Until now it has been unclear whether some types of exercise work better than others. We wanted to find out what exercise works best to improve movement and quality of life.”

The average age of the participants in the studies included in the review was between 60 and 74 years. Most had mild to moderate disease and no major impairment of their thinking processes. The review found that most types of exercise worked well for the participants compared to no physical exercise.

The first author of the review, Mr Moritz Ernst, is a member of Cochrane Haematology and deputy head of the working group on Evidence-based Medicine, which is led by co-author of the study, Professor Nicole Skoetz, at University Hospital Cologne. He said: “We observed clinically meaningful improvements in the severity of motor symptoms for most types of exercise. These included dancing, training to improve gait, balance and movement, multi-exercise training, and mind-body training.  

“We saw similar benefits in the severity of motor symptoms for water-based training, strength and resistance training, and endurance training, but the estimates of improvement were rather imprecise, meaning that we are not as confident in saying that these improvements are clinically meaningful.

“For the effects on quality of life, we observed clinically meaningful beneficial effects for water-based training, and effects that are probably clinically meaningful for several types of exercise, such as endurance training, mind-body training, training to improve gait, balance and movement and multi-exercise training. Again, these estimates were rather imprecise.”

The certainty in the estimates for the effects on symptoms from different forms of exercise varied because some studies were very small, and not all provided information on the severity of motor symptoms and quality of life for all the participants. However, the authors say that their review highlights that most types of exercise produced meaningful improvements, and they found little evidence of much difference between different exercises.

Prof. Kalbe said: “We think that our results are good news because they indicate that people with Parkinson’s Disease can benefit from various structured exercise programmes to improve the severity of motor symptoms and quality of life. Our review highlights the importance of physical exercise in general, while the exact exercise type may be secondary. Therefore, the personal preferences of people with Parkinson’s Disease should be given special consideration to help motivate them to adhere to an exercise programme. Any exercise counts! 

“It is important to point out that our conclusions do not rule out that certain motor symptoms may be treated most effectively by programmes, such as physiotherapy, that are designed specifically for people with Parkinson’s disease.”

Mr Ernst concluded: “Although our results are quite promising for people with Parkinson’s Disease, the certainty in the evidence on the efficacy of different exercise types and on potential differences between them, was usually limited. This was also because most studies had a very small sample size. Therefore, although there is already a large amount of research in this field, we would encourage researchers to conduct larger studies with clearly defined samples, as this would help to draw conclusions with more confidence. In addition, it would be admirable to see studies that focus on people with more advanced disease and thinking impairment, so that we could find out if physical exercise could also be beneficial for these people.”

Ernst M, Folkerts A-K, Gollan R, Lieker E, Caro-Valenzuela J, Adams A, Cryns N, Monsef I, Dresen A, Roheger M, Eggers C, Skoetz N, Kalbe E. Physical exercise for people with Parkinson’s disease: a systematic review and network meta‐analysis. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2023, Issue 1. Art. No.: CD013856. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD013856.pub2.

• Read the full review on the Cochrane Library
• Visit the Cochrane Movement Disorders website
• Press contact information
• Read the Evidently Cochrane blog post 'Physical exercise for people

Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Cochrane is named in honour of Archie Cochrane, a British medical researcher who contributed greatly to the development of epidemiology as a science. 

Archie Cochrane is best known for his influential book, Effectiveness and Efficiency: Random Reflections on Health Services, published in 1972. The principles he set out in it so clearly were straightforward: he suggested that, because resources would always be limited, they should be used to provide equitably those forms of health care which had been shown in properly designed evaluations to be effective. In particular, he stressed the importance of using evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) because these were likely to provide much more reliable information than other sources of evidence. Cochrane's simple propositions were soon widely recognised as seminally important - by lay people as well as by health professionals.

How can we have a rational health service if we don’t know which of the things being done in it are useful and which are useless or possibly even harmful? — Archie Cochrane

In 1979 he wrote, "It is surely a great criticism of our profession that we have not organised a critical summary, by specialty or subspecialty, adapted periodically, of all relevant randomised controlled trials." His challenge led to the establishment during the 1980s of an international collaboration to develop the Oxford Database of Perinatal Trials.

In 1987, the year before Cochrane died, he referred to a systematic review of RCTs of care during pregnancy and childbirth as "a real milestone in the history of randomized trials and in the evaluation of care", and suggested that other specialties should copy the methods used. His encouragement, and the endorsement of his views by others, led to the opening of the first Cochrane Centre (in Oxford, UK) in 1992 and the founding of  Cochrane in 1993.

Archie portrait made up of contributors pictures

Today Cochrane members and supporters come from 190 countries . We are researchers, health professionals, patients, carers, and people passionate about improving health outcomes for everyone, everywhere. Our global independent network gathers and summarizes the best evidence from research to help you make informed choices about treatment and we have been doing this for 30 years.

The 12th of January marks Archie Cochrane's birthday and it's a great opportunity to reflect on his contributions.

• Learn more about Archie Cochrane on Wikipedia
• Read BMJ Editorial 'Revisiting the value of Archie Cochrane’s contributions' by Xavier Bonfill
• Learn more about the work of Cochrane

Thursday, January 11, 2024

Cochrane London 2023: Forward together for trusted evidence
4-6 September 2023
Central London, UK

Cochrane UK is delighted to be hosting the  Cochrane Colloquium at the Queen Elizabeth II (QEII) Centre in London, UK from the 4 to 6 of September 2023, with satellite events and meetings on the 3rd September.

Cochrane is an international non-profit network that provides evidence-based scientific knowledge to improve healthcare for all people worldwide. Cochrane Reviews summarise all available research on a specific health question. They are up-to-date, follow a rigorous scientific methodology, and are free from commercial conflicts of interest. Health professionals, patients, and policy makers trust Cochrane Reviews for their healthcare decision-making. Cochrane works with researchers, health professionals, patients, policy makers, and media representatives from around the world to make Cochrane Reviews relevant and usable.

Cochrane holds an annual conference, known as a Colloquium, that brings together Cochrane researchers, clinical professionals, early career professionals, patients and carers, policymakers, and anyone interested in evidence synthesis and evidence-based healthcare. The events are a mix of keynote speakers, training opportunities, workshops, presentations, and a lively social and networking atmosphere. They are an exciting opportunity for a community of evidence synthesis enthusiasts to share, learn, and connect.  

We invite everyone to visit the website - colloquium2023.cochrane.org - for all information related to the colloquium as it's released, including submissions for abstracts and awards/prizes, registration, stipend applications, and the event programme.

The theme of the Colloquium is 'Forward together for trusted evidence', which explores the challenges for the future around the trustworthiness of healthcare information whilst also celebrating 30 years of producing trusted evidence. Today, we have launched guidance and recommendations to help you prepare in advance for your abstract submissions. The official call for abstracts will open on the 30 January 2023.

We invite abstract submissions for the following streams: producing trusted evidence; advocating for trusted evidence; informing health and care decisions; and co-production and working together. 

• Abstract  submission guidance
  
• Workshop submission guidance 

Catherine Spencer, Cochrane CEO said, “The Cochrane Colloquium will bring people together in one place to discuss, develop and promote Cochrane’s work. I am looking forward to a packed programme at my first colloquium and encourage you to start to think about your contributions now as the call for abstracts will be open soon.”

Martin Burton, Director of Cochrane UK, said: “We are really looking forward to receiving submissions of abstracts for London 2023.  We’d like to encourage everyone to start thinking about their contributions now – whether they are planning oral presentations, workshops or posters. We have prepared this guidance to help everyone to prepare their contributions in good time before submissions are formally opened on 30 January 2023.” 

• Abstract  submission guidance
  
• Workshop submission guidance 
• Colloquium website 
• #CochraneLondon
• Press contact: Katie Abbotts, Cochrane UK

  Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Location: Flexible location (remote working) – contract type dependent on location.
Specifications: Permanent position. Employment contract if successful applicant based in UK, Germany or Denmark. Consultancy contract in other locations.
Hours: Full-time (37.5 hours per week) or part-time (please specify desired working hours)
Salary: £30,000 per annum, prorata
Application Closing Date: Tuesday 17 January 2023 (Midnight GMT).

This role is an exciting opportunity to use your communication and problem-solving skills to make a difference in the field of healthcare research and publishing. 

Cochrane implemented Editorial Manager in 2021 as the editorial and production system for Cochrane Reviews. This role has a significant focus on supporting authors, editors and peer reviewers in using Editorial Manager for submission and peer review; and our linked system Convey for managing Declarations of Interest. Applications are particularly welcomed from candidates with experience of using these or similar systems.

The Cochrane Support team provides technical and user support to Cochrane editorial teams and review authors; and handle enquiries from members of the public about Cochrane’s work. We pride ourselves on our timely and coordinated support service, covering a broad range of areas, with a focus on Cochrane review-writing software and editorial processing and publication.

The team works closely with Cochrane’s Central Editorial Service and other related departments, to ensure accurate, consistent responses to queries on Cochrane technology, policies and methods.

Cochrane is a global, independent network of health practitioners, researchers, patient advocates and others, responding to the challenge of making vast amounts of research evidence useful for informing decisions about health. We do this by synthesizing research findings to produce the best available evidence on what can work, what might harm and where more research is needed. Our work is recognised as the international gold standard for high quality, trusted information.

Cochrane welcomes applications from a wide range of perspectives, experiences, locations, and backgrounds; diversity, equity and inclusion are key to their values.

How to apply: 

• For further information on the role and how to apply, please click here  
• The supporting statement should indicate why you are applying for the post, and how far you meet the requirements, using specific examples.
• If you are applying for part-time work, please specify the number of hours you are interested in working.
• Read our Recruitment Privacy Statement
• Deadline for applications: Tuesday 17 January 2023 (12 midnight GMT)

 

Thursday, December 22, 2022 Category: Jobs

Location: Remote, UK. 
Specifications: Permanent contract.
Hours: Full-time week (flexible working considered) – 37.5 hours.
Salary: £52,363 per annum.
Application Closing Date: 8 January (Midnight GMT Time)

We are a global, independent organization that strives to inform health-care decisions every day. We gather and summarize the best evidence from research to help doctors, nurses, patients, carers, researchers, funders, and policymakers. We do not accept commercial or conflicted funding, and work to minimize risk of bias, in order to generate authoritative and reliable information.

As our new IT Infrastructure Operations Manager, you will ensure the fitness-for-purpose, cost-effectiveness, availability, and security of Cochrane’s IT systems infrastructure and operations. Monitor and help manage the lifecycle of our in-house software. Set policy for, and advise on the provision of, IT for the Cochrane Central Executive team (ca. 100 people).

Cochrane welcomes applications from a wide range of perspectives, experiences, locations, and backgrounds; diversity, equity and inclusion are key to their values.

How to apply:

• For further information on the job description and how to apply, please click here. 
• The supporting statement should indicate why you are applying for the post, and how far you meet the requirements, using specific examples. 
• Note that we will assess applications as they are received, and therefore may fill the post before the deadline.
  
• Read our Recruitment Privacy Statement
• Deadline for applications: 8 January 2023 (Midnight GMT).
• Interviews to be held on: W/C 16 February 2023(times and exact dates to be confirmed).

Thursday, December 22, 2022 Category: Jobs

Specifications: Full Time (Permanent)
Salary: £51,489 per annum
Location: Ideally based in the UK, Germany or Denmark. Candidates from the rest of the world will be considered; however, Cochrane’s Central Executive Team is only able to offer consultancy contracts outside these countries (1-year fixed-term contracts)
Application Closing Date: 8th January 2023

Cochrane has established a centrally-resourced Editorial Service to support the efficient and timely publication of high-quality systematic reviews in the Cochrane Library. The reviews that are published through the Central Editorial Service address some of the research questions considered to be the most important to decision makers.

Working as part of a friendly and supportive international team, the Senior Managing Editor will be responsible for managing the efficient and timely editorial processing of a portfolio of approximately 150 publications per year.  The role holder will be expected to prioritise and delegate editorial tasks as appropriate. They will also need to be an advocate for the Editorial Service internally and externally to Cochrane and remain alert to immediate demands of delivering high-quality review content for publication in a timely fashion.      

Reporting to the Executive Editor and working with members of the Editorial Production and Methods Directorate, the role holder will need to have good awareness of Cochrane guidance for different types of standard and complex systematic reviews (intervention, qualitative, diagnostic test accuracy, prognosis, rapid and overview), plan how they will need to be handled in their team, and work to ensure that deadlines are met. The role holder will also be required to ensure that pilots aimed at innovating the editorial process can be supported as needed.  

The majority of Cochrane Central Executive staff are located in London, UK, however flexible locations are possible for the right candidate. Please note, however, that we are only able to offer consultancy contracts outside of the UK, Germany or Denmark.

We will consider extended notice periods if required for applicants who wish to honour existing contracts. We fully support remote and flexible working arrangements.  

How to apply

• For further information on the role and how to apply, please click here. 
• The deadline to receive your application is by 8th January 2023. 
• The supporting statement should indicate why you are applying for the post, and how far you meet the requirements, using specific examples.
• Note that we will assess applications as they are received, and therefore may fill the post before the deadline.
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Wednesday, December 21, 2022 Category: Jobs

Cochrane Crowd is a global community of volunteers who are helping to classify the research needed to support informed decision-making about health care. Recently Cochrane Mexico held an in-person screening challenge that helped introduce students to randomized control trials and evidence assessment while contributing to global research efforts. 

The job of the Cochrane Crowd community is to review descriptions of research studies to identify and classify randomized controlled trials (RCTs), a type of study that is considered the gold standard for clinical trials. Reports of RCTs are then fed into Cochrane’s Central Register of Controlled Trials, helping Cochrane authors and other systematic reviewers around the world quickly find the evidence they need to determine whether a treatment works, or whether a diagnostic test is accurate.

8,000 RCTs identified in 24-hour student event

The Cochrane Mexico Associated Centre at Sinaloa’s Pediatric Hospital and the Autonomous University of Sinaloa took on their second in-person Cochrane Crowd challenge. For 24 hours students from both logged into Cochrane Crowd, screened studies, and identified RCTs. In total, 579 students performed more than 250,000 classifications, which identified 8,712 RCTs. This 24-hour event topped the number of RCTs identified in Cochrane Mexico’s first Cochrane Crowd event in 2018, which lasted for 3 days.

Students who screened more than 1,000 records received their Cochrane membership . In addition, evidence-based medicine books were awarded to all those who exceeded 1,000 classifications, had a sensitivity greater than 95%, and an overall accuracy greater than 70% to identify clinical trials. 

Giordano Perez-Gaxiola, director of Cochrane Mexico and key challenge organizer, says: “Cochrane Crowd is a great introduction to systematic reviews and randomized control trials for students. Having students participate in a time-limited challenge is a fun way to engage students and was simple for us to set-up. The students exceeded all our expectations this year and we are so proud of them! Many of the students enjoyed it so much and could see results of their efforts for global health research that they are continuing to do screening on Cochrane Crowd!”

Anyone can join Cochrane Crowd and no previous experience is necessary

“Cochrane sends its thanks to all those involved in this citizen scientist challenge using Cochrane Crowd – what an amazing achievement in just 24 hours!” says Anna Noel-Storr, Head of Cochrane’s Evidence Pipeline. “We hope these students inspire everyone to give Cochrane Crowd a try. From medical students, to clinicians, to anyone with an interest in health research – being a part of Cochrane Crowd can help individuals develop skills in understanding health evidence while collectively contributing to global research efforts.” 

Has Cochrane Mexico inspired you to organise a Cochrane Crowd challenge at your workplace or university? If so, please get in contact and we will support you to get one up and running: crowd@cochrane.org.

• Join Cochrane Crowd - everyone is welcome! 
• If you teach evidence-based medicine, check out Cochrane Classmate, the platform we run challenges on.  

Thursday, January 12, 2023

Dear Cochrane Colleagues, Members and Supporters, 

Thank you to everyone across our community for your dedication and commitment to Cochrane during 2022. The last few years have at times felt tumultuous, both due to Covid and world events, but also because of the changes we are making to ensure that Cochrane is fit for a future that meets our vision of a world of better health for all people, where decisions about health and care are informed by high-quality evidence. 

We are well on our way to creating an evolved impact-driven organisation to support evidence-based health and social care. With your help we are building on your enormous achievements, over the past thirty years, to create new ways of producing the right evidence, in a timely manner, to support decision making.  

Our updated Future Cochrane micro-site demonstrates the scale of progress at Cochrane and the work under way to transition to our new model. The site is designed to be a one-stop shop for news and information on the change process.  

In November we announced Cochrane’s first seven new Thematic Groups. The first groups are: 

• Global Ageing 
• Health Equity 
• Nutrition and Physical Activity 
• Person-Centred Care, Public Health and Health Systems 
• Sexual and Reproductive Health 
• Vascular 
• Work and Health and Social Security 

Feature profiles of each Thematic Group will be published in the months ahead, with Person Centred Care, Health Systems and Public Health and Nutrition and Physical Activity kicking off the series this month. Keep an eye out for Health Equity when the series resumes in early February.  

Many of you are interested in the next steps of our transition. We will make further announcements about the process for establishing Evidence Synthesis Units next year. 

At the end of November Jimmy Volmink provided a superb Cochrane lecture focusing on equality and diversity. Many of the themes and challenges that he raised are already being threaded through our future plans.  

Open Access is of course key to that future, ensuring that more people have immediate access to our content.  Progress demonstrating our commitment was evident last month when Cochrane launched Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods, our first open access journal, in which we will publish diverse types of evidence synthesis, methods research, and research on other areas vital to evidence synthesis. This new platform allows us to disseminate research beyond systematic reviews from across Cochrane groups and collaborators ­– who until now, have not been able to publish their research in a Cochrane journal.  

And of course, we have been delighted with the high-profile reviews that we’ve published in the Cochrane Library. 

• Efficacy and safety of COVID‐19 vaccines  
• Unintended consequences of measures implemented in the school setting to contain the COVID-19 pandemic: a scoping review 
• SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies to prevent COVID-19 
• Janus kinase inhibitors for the treatment of COVID-19 
• Interleukin-1 blocking agents for the treatment of COVID-19 
• Interventions for preventing falls in Parkinson's disease 
• Interventions to increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake: a scoping review 
• Inhaled corticosteroids for the treatment of COVID-19 
• Immunity after COVID-19 vaccination in people with higher risk of compromised immune status: a scoping review 
• Replacing salt with low-sodium salt substitutes (LSSS) for cardiovascular and renal health in adults, children and pregnant women 
• Fluvoxamine for the treatment of COVID-19 
• Guaiac-based faecal occult blood tests versus faecal immunochemical tests for colorectal cancer screening in average-risk individuals 

As we ramp up our fundraising efforts across the organisation it’s great to see that we have already had success in the US, with  $5 million for Cochrane Eyes & Vision US Satellite,  $1 million to Cochrane US Network and in South Africa with partners, funding for The Global Evidence, Local Adaptation project.  

Other successes include: 

• 6,100+ plain language summaries were translated in 15 different languages in 2022 so far 
• Cochrane Rehab joins World Rehab Alliance 
• Impact factor increased 
• WHO postnatal guidelines 
• WHO labour recommendations  

Diversity and Inclusion progress: 

• Diversity and inclusion report 
• Launch of Evidence Essentials 5: consumer involvement in Cochrane  
• Signed a public involvement pledge 
• Updated Cochrane Engage volunteer hub 

And there’s also great news from our Evidence Pipeline Team. Cochrane has always been a leader in innovation, and now we have demonstrated further success by introducing the ability to browse the Cochrane Library by patient/population, intervention, comparison, and outcomes, which is universally shortened to PICO. It is now possible to browse Cochrane content using themed groups of included PICOs from the Cochrane Library homepage. Users can discover Cochrane content using themed groups of included PICOs curated and maintained by Cochrane PICO ontology experts. With one click, users can see all available search results for categories with included PICOs. In addition, there is clear contextual help for those new to PICOs, with clear guidance on using PICOs and links to the relevant section of the Cochrane Handbook.  

Additional successes include: 

• Over 5200 new contributors have joined Cochrane Crowd this year, bringing total Crowd community to 28,302 people from 178 countries! 
• 1.7 million records assessed by the Crowd this year 
• Launched new Crowd task PICO Extract in August 2022. Over 4000 RCTs have now been PICO annotated.  
• We launched the Central Study Identification Service – a service that helps to identify the studies for any Cochrane Review. We are in a pilot phase at the moment but the service has been used by 7 Cochrane Intervention Reviews so far and reduced author screening by an average of 70%.  
• Cochrane Crowd hosted a huge 24-hour screening challenge in October this year: organised by Cochrane Mexico using Cochrane Classmate, nearly 600 students screened over 250,000 records in just 24 hours. 

2022 has been a busy but productive year, thank you all for the incredible work you have done. 

2023 promises to be challenging as we continue our transformation. This includes the changes to UK Review Groups as a result of the loss of NIHR funding in the UK; their contribution to the Cochrane Library and Cochrane has been immense. It is difficult to find words which adequately describe how much they have given to Cochrane. 

As we look towards a new future at Cochrane I look forward to collaborating and working with you to use the best of the past to create more impact in more locations around the world. 

Best wishes for a wonderful festive season and a happy and healthy 2023, 

Catherine Spencer, CEO 

On behalf of the Executive Leadership Team 

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Thursday, December 15, 2022