The Cochrane Library is the single most reliable source for evidence on the effects of health care.

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What Is The Cochrane Library?
The Cochrane Library is the single most reliable
source for evidence on the effects of health
care. Health care in the 21st Century relies not
only on individual medical skills, but also on
the best information on the effectiveness of each
intervention being accessible to practitioners,
patients, and policy makers. This approach is
known as evidence-based medicine.
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The Cochrane Library provides information and
evidence to support decisions taken in health
care and to inform those receiving care.
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THE COCHRANE COLLABORATION
Wiley publishes the Cochrane Library for The
Cochrane Collaboration

• Structure - established as an international
  organisation in 1993, registered as a charity in
  the U.K.
• Aim - to help people make well-informed decisions
  about health care.
• How - by preparing and maintaining, and promoting
  access to, systematic reviews of the effects of
  healthcare interventions.
• Publishing Output The Cochrane Library

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WHAT IS THE COCHRANE LIBRARY?
The Cochrane Library is a collection of
Evidence-Based Medicine databases

• The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
  (Cochrane Reviews)
• The Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects
  (Other Reviews)
• The Central Register of Controlled Trials
  (Clinical Trials)
• The Cochrane Methodology Register (Methods
  Studies)
• Health Technology Assessment Database HTA
  (Technology Assessments)
• NHS Economic Evaluation Database NHS EED
  (Economic Evaluations)
• It also contains information about The Cochrane
  Collaboration and the Cochrane Collaborative
  Review Groups

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The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
How large is the Cochrane Reviews database?

• More than 3298 Full text Cochrane Reviews (html
  PDF format)

• More than 1755 Protocols (Reviews in
  progress)

• All Reviews are regularly updated with the latest
  evidence

Unique feature not available anywhere else!
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The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
(Cochrane reviews)
What is a Systematic Review?
The authors of a systematic review identify an
intervention for a specific disease or other
problem in health care, and then ask whether or
not this intervention works. In order to do this
they locate, appraise and synthesise evidence
from as many relevant scientific studies as
possible. They summarise conclusions about
effectiveness, and provide a unique collation of
the known evidence on a given topic, so that
others can easily review the primary studies for
intervention.
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Why are The Cochrane Systematic Reviews so
important?
Cochrane Reviews are conducted to the highest
standard of methodological quality. They have
been found to be of comparable or better quality
and are updated more frequently than reviews
published in print journals.1 1 Source Jadad
AR, Cook DJ, Jones A, Klassen TP, Tugwell P,
Moher M, Moher D. Methodology and reports of
systematic reviews and meta-analyses a
comparison of Cochrane reviews with articles
published in paper-based journals. JAMA
1998280278-280.
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The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
What sort of healthcare questions are addressed?
thousands!
What magnitude of risk reduction when a patient
with Coronary Heart Disease stops smoking?
People who quit smoking after a heart attack or
cardiac surgery reduce their risk of death by at
least one third.
Does the use of hydrolysed formulas for infant
feeding prevents allergy and food intolerance?
When babies are not exclusively breastfed, using
hydrolysed infant formulas instead of ordinary
cow's and soy milk formulas can reduce allergies
in babies and children.
Does having a friend for support present during
labour and childbirth impact on a womans
experience?
Yes. Continuous labour support reduces a woman's
likelihood of having pain medication, increases
her satisfaction and chances for 'spontaneous'
birth, and has no known risks.
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The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
What is so important about it?
Cochrane reviews address clearly formulated
questions such as does fluoride help prevent
tooth decay in children or can antibiotics help
in alleviating the symptoms of a sore
throat. Comprehensive and explicit methods are
used to track down, select and determine the
quality of relevant research. This includes
searches for unpublished and non-English records
to provide as complete a picture as possible to
try to answer the question considered. A
diagrammatic analysis is also provided in the
form of an odds-ratio diagram. These diagrams
reveal, at a glance, whether a treatment works or
not.
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The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
Also includes

• Methodology reviews and protocols.
• Full-text Reviews examine the benefit of
  methodological studies
• e.g. Does editorial peer-review improve the
  quality of reports of biomedical studies?

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Cochrane Reviews who uses them?

• Physicians, consultants, medical staff
• Health care service providers
• Policy makers
• Media
• Members of the public
• A reliable source that summarises the best
  evidence on the effects of a particular
  healthcare intervention at a particular point in
  time.

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• Those who say that systematic reviews and meta
  analyses are not proper research are wrong it
  is clinical trials done in the absence of such
  reviews and meta-analyses that are improper,
  scientifically and ethically. Investigators and
  organisations who undertake and coordinate
  reviews and meta-analyses now need the funding
  and recognition they deserve if public trust in
  biomedical research is to be maintained and
  resources used in an effective way.
• Putting clinical trials into context,
  Charles Young and Richard Horton,
• The Lancet 2005 366107-108

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Cochrane Reviews are now the gold standard for
systematic reviews in such key publications as
The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine,
British Medical Journal, and the Journal of the
American Medical Association and routinely appear
there as well as in specialised medical journals
for various specialty areas.
Source Chart by Paul Glasziou
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• Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects -
  DARE
• (Other Reviews)
• DARE is the worlds largest database of quality
  assessed systematic reviews. The database
• Contains 5,000 quality assessed and critically
  appraised systematic reviews on the effects of
  interventions used in health and social care
• Includes short bibliographic references to
  systematic reviews which are in the process of
  being assessed or having abstracts written
• Is produced by the Centre for Reviews and
  Dissemination (CRD) at the University of York,
  UK.

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• Central Register of Controlled Trials (Clinical
  Trials)
• Contains a register of studies which may be
  relevant for inclusion in Cochrane reviews.
• Worlds largest database of randomly controlled
  trials.
• For Cochrane reviewers needing to identify
  studies for a Cochrane review and researchers
  wishing to identify studies in a different
  medical disciplines.

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• The Cochrane Methodology Register (Methods
  Studies)
• Contains a bibliography of publications which
  report on methods used in the conduct of
  controlled trials.
• It includes journal articles, books and
  conference proceedings, these articles are taken
  from the MEDLINE database and from hand searches.

Plus information on the Collaboration and its
Review Groups.
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• Health Technology Assessment Database
• (Technology Assessments)
• The HTA database brings together details of
  completed and ongoing health technology
  assessments from over 40 HTA agencies around the
  world.
• Health technology assessments are evaluations of
  any treatments, procedures, interventions or
  configuration of health services that are or
  could be used in health care.
• The abstracts in the database are descriptive
  rather than analytical and do not form critical
  appraisals of the reports.
• The HTA database is produced by the Centre for
  Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) at the University
  of York, UK, UK in collaboration with the INAHTA
  Secretariat, based at SBU, Sweden.

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• NHS Economic Evaluation Database (Economic
  Evaluations)
• Health care decision makers need easy access to
  reliable information about the costs as well as
  the effects of interventions to inform their
  decisions. The database
• Includes economic evaluations from around the
  world,
• Contains over 5,000 quality abstracts of quality
  assessed economic evaluations
• Includes short bibliographic references to
  economic evaluations which are in the process of
  being assessed or having abstracts written
• NHS EED is produced by the Centre for Reviews and
  Dissemination (CRD) at the University of York,
  UK.

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Finding Information
The Cochrane Library has many features that make
finding the information you are after fast and
accurate
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An Advanced Search of the Cochrane Library
searching for all text schizo, drugs, atypical
and antipsychotic. in All Fields in The Cochrane
Database of Systematic Reviews"
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An Advanced Search of the Cochrane Library
Returns the following results
You can toggle between results listed for the
different databases in The Cochrane Library here
Use these links to restrict your search results
to Reviews only, or Protocols (reviews in
progress) only.
Save or edit your search using these links.
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MeSH (Medical Subjects Heading Search)
Let us look at an example
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MeSH (Medical Subjects Heading Search)
Use the Thesaurus to search for MeSH descriptors
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MeSH (Medical Subjects Heading Search)
Or use qualifiers.
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Search History
Select Search History. To combine searches, enter
their number together with Boolean operator of
choice in this case AND.
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Search History
Your combined search will then appear in your
Search History.
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Who benefits from the Cochrane Library?

• Health Professionals at all levels, Health
  Researchers, Health Policy Makers, Care Givers
  and patients.

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FORMATS

• Online via Wiley InterScience - Basic Access
  License (1 license for 1 user at a time)
• Online via Wiley InterScience - Enhanced Access
  License (multiple users)
• Online via Wiley InterScience - Personal License
  (1 private address for 1 user only)
• Online via Wiley InterScience Regional/National
  Site Licenses (Residents in a number of countries
  can access The Cochrane Library for free through
  a national provision or License)
• CD-ROM - institutional
• CD-ROM - personal

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Strengths of The Cochrane Library on Wiley
InterScience.

• Browse and search functionality is customised to
  the needs of those working with clinical trials.
  Achieved through deep consultation and testing
  with Cochrane Review Groups and longstanding
  users of The Cochrane Library.
• Documents are available in both html and PDF
  formats
• All the component databases are updated every
  three months.
• The Wiley InterScience interface is structured
  and easy to read.
• Wiley InterScience has extensive linking
  including Crossref linking.
• Wiley InterScience alerting service provides
  users automatic updates in their chosen area.
• Wiley InterScience includes a comments and
  feedback function to allow users to communicate
  with the Cochrane Review Groups.

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What next?

• Now Science Citation Index listed
• ISI Impact Factor early 2008, based on 2005/06/07
  data

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