Cochrane Collaboration

Jeremy Grimshaw, Jonathan Craig

The Cochrane Collaboration [ kɒkɹən ], named after Archie Cochrane, is a global network of scientists and physicians. The aim is to systematic reviews ( systematic reviews ) to create for the evaluation of medical therapies to keep up to date and spread.

Basics

As a basis, all available data apply to a question so that an objective view can be drawn to a therapy. The reviews are written by review groups (eg, breast cancer), therapy is based (for example, food ) or on areas of medical care (eg, primary care ) may be oriented problem-oriented. The review groups are usually composed internationally. Each group is supervised by an editorial team that is responsible for the review and publication of the developed systematic overviews as part of The updated Cochrane Library reviews. The Cochrane Collaboration is working according to strict methodological rules to preclude distortion (bias or systematic error ) of results.

Structures

For coordination, organization, public relations, education and training, the thirteen globally distributed Cochrane Centres are responsible. They support and promote the formation of new review groups. Cochrane centers exist today (March 2009) in Amsterdam (The Netherlands ), Baltimore (USA), Barcelona ( Spain), Chengdu (China), Freiburg ( Germany ), Cape Town (South Africa ), Copenhagen ( Denmark), Milan (Italy ), Melbourne ( Australia), Ottawa (Canada), Oxford ( England), São Paulo (Brazil) and Vellore (India).

The centers are also responsible for the countries of their geographical or linguistic area, which do not have their own center. For example, the Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen is responsible for all Scandinavian countries and serves other countries, such as Poland. To this end, there are offshoots (called " Branches" ), for example in Finland or Norway.

The Cochrane Collaboration is a non-profit organization. The Cochrane centers are supported by health authorities, universities or scientific funds. The rights of the reviews created remain with the authors. The databases are collective property of the employees. They are marketed by Wiley.