Fit for purpose: centralised updating support for high priority Cochrane Reviews

October 19th 2010

The Cochrane Collaboration have a deserved reputation for producing high quality systematic reviews, and review authors are expected to make a commitment to maintaining their reviews. They would be first to admit, however, that updating is a continual and ever-increasing challenge for Cochrane Review Groups (CRGs) in the context of a rapidly changing information environment. Is there some way in which a centralised unit can support the CRGs to keep at least their most important reviews up-to-date?

Bazian are working with the Cochrane Editorial Unit, the Canadian Cochrane Centre and the UK Cochrane Centre on a project, funded by the UK National Institute for Health Research, aimed at exploring the answer to this question, entitled “Fit for purpose: centralised updating support for high priority Cochrane Reviews”. There are three main strands to the project:

To develop a framework that Cochrane Review Groups can use to identify those reviews that the National Health Service and other stakeholders regard as the most important to update
To assist CRGs in identifying the reviews that are most prone to instability
To explore whether selected strategies can be centralised in delivering updated reviews that have been identified as a priority topic by CRGs

We’re really excited to be working on this project. Cochrane are of course a huge player in the world of evidence based medicine, and ensuring that their reviews are up-to-date and relevant to the needs of frontline professionals and healthcare payors will help ensure best practice and improved health outcomes for all.