What Is the Cochrane Library?
The collector
of the best available medical evidence resulting from the scientific and
experimental research conducted in the healthcare field, the Cochrane Library has
been established for 20 years.
In order to help and facilitate decision-making in the healthcare field, the
library has been formed by collecting reliable information.
Members of Cochrane Organization are several researchers and experts in the
healthcare field, based in 120 countries of the world and the form of 52
specialized groups with the name of Cochrane Review Groups.
The Cochrane
Library encompasses six different databases.
A seventh
database entitled “The Cochrane Collaboration” has been created which contains
information related to the 52 specialized groups of Cochrane Library.
CDSR Database
This is the most valid source for access to systematic reviews in the
health field. In addition, the database is updated monthly.
The systematic reviews are provided to users with the title of “Cochrane
Reviews”.
The CDSR database includes the protocols of implementing reviews.
Peer-review and Cochrane reviews and protocols are carried out by 52
specialized groups with the title of “Cochrane Review Groups”.
Methods of
implementation and writing Cochrane Reviews are performed based on the
following two references:
Cochrane Handbook for
Systematic Reviews of Interventions
Cochrane Handbook for
Diagnostic Test Accuracy Reviews
To write reviews about treatment
interventions, method of implementation involves the following steps:
1. Defining the
question of review and determining the criteria for selecting studies
2. Search to
find articles
3. Selecting
studies and collecting data
4. Assessing
the risk of bias in the selected articles
5. Data
analysis and performing meta-analysis (case by case)
6. Determining
and pointing out the reported bias
7. Presenting
results and preparing the table of summary of results
8.
Interpreting the results and providing a conclusion
Cochrane
Reviews
Cochrane reviews are systematic reviews performed in the field of health
and relevant policymaking. In addition, Cochrane reviews follow specific
qualitative criteria for implementation, which are provided to the authors of
Cochrane reviews based on a predetermined program known as a protocol. The most
important point in terms of this protocol is formulated a question for
implementation of a systematic review, where health problems and treatment
interventions studied are determined.
Moreover, the review process for the author is listed in the protocol.
The Cochrane reviews are updated as soon as receiving new evidence since the
results of reviews might be changed based on the results of these studies.
The systematic
reviews attempt to respond to a hypothesized
research question (formulated question) by identifying, evaluating, and
integrating empirical evidence that meets the criteria for the selection of the
predetermined ones. The review conducting process has four main stages: 1)
determining relevant studies from different sources including unpublished
sources, 2) selecting among the studies identified to assess their strengths
and limitations based on transparent criteria from the foregoing, 3) collecting
systematic data (disease data or therapeutic intervention), and 4) appropriate
data integration.
CDSR
CDSR includes
Cochrane reviews and other external resources related to browsing topics,
including the sources derived from Evidence Aid, which aim to provide an
overview of the topic. These databases are formed to help deciding about
regional or predominantly occurring disasters, and emergencies (from a
humanitarian perspective) and access to most of them is free.
One of the
important databases of CDSR is the Cochrane Overviews database, which
determines and introduces reviews on various topics or different Bras groups that are
separately classified but are somehow related to each other.
Central Database
The central database contains the bibliographic information of articles
related to clinical trials listed in Medline and Embase. In some cases, the
database also includes the abstract of articles.
Depending on their work area, the Cochrane Bras Groups publish reports entitled “specialized
registers”, which are related to clinical trials and cannot be found in Medline
and Embase databases. These reports are provided to the audiences through the Central
Database. Given the fact that the Central Database has been established to
provide uniform access to all random and semi-random controlled clinical
trials. In this database, the relevant information is stored regardless of the
language and year of publication.
Fields
Fields are recognized as health and treatment areas that require constant
monitoring of problems and issues to maintain the community’s health. A section
has been structured in the international organization of Cochrane Collaboration
to evaluate the fields and ensure the sustainable review of the relevant issues
by Cochrane Bras
Groups. This section evaluates fields based on the classification presented
below:
Child health
Complementary medicine
Consumer network
Healthcare of older people
Neurosciences
Nursing Care
Pre-hospital and
Emergency Care
Vaccines