Welcome to the new Evidently Cochrane site! We took our first steps in blogging about Cochrane reviewsCochrane Reviews are systematic reviews. In systematic reviews we search for and summarize studies that answer a specific research question (e.g. is paracetamol effective and safe for treating back pain?). The studies are identified, assessed, and summarized by using a systematic and predefined approach. They inform recommendations for healthcare and research. eighteen months ago and discovered that there is an appetite for reading about Cochrane evidenceCochrane Reviews are systematic reviews. In systematic reviews we search for and summarize studies that answer a specific research question (e.g. is paracetamol effective and safe for treating back pain?). The studies are identified, assessed, and summarized by using a systematic and predefined approach. They inform recommendations for healthcare and research. in this way. We’ve blogged over two hundred reviews so far;we’ve learned a lot and we thought we could make this better. With a lot of help from Minervation and people who took time to give us feedback, we hope we have! We hope you’ll look round the site for yourselves, but here’s a few questions we think you might be asking, and some answers.
Who is this for?
This is something about which people have been unclear, so we’ve written about this here. But if you are a patient or carer, someone exploring healthy lifestyle choices, a healthcare professional, policy-maker or researcher, or someone keen to share evidence through social media, then there are blogs here for you.
What can I get here?
A weekly blog, giving you Cochrane evidence in an accessible way, which we hope will help you when you are making decisions about health. After all, that’s the point of doing systematic reviewsIn systematic reviews we search for and summarize studies that answer a specific research question (e.g. is paracetamol effective and safe for treating back pain?). The studies are identified, assessed, and summarized by using a systematic and predefined approach. They inform recommendations for healthcare and research. in the first place, to help us make informed choices. But, let’s face it, these can be hard to find, hard to understand and even, dare I say it, boring… Most Cochrane reviews have a summary available, and we give you links to these as well as to the full reviews, so do take a look at those.
So what else do I get?
- Evidence that is up-to-date. Many of the blogs feature new or newly-updated Cochrane reviews and we will update the blogs to reflect the latest available versions of the reviews
- Evidence that’s topical. We often choose reviews that are relevant to topics being discussed in the media or featured in health awareness events. We also prioritise health concerns which are relevant (but not limited) to the UK
- Discussion of the evidence by people for whom it is relevant. We’ve had comments within, and on, blogs from patients, health professionals and commissioners, which have been really valuable contributions and we’re looking forward to much more of this
- News of reports, guidelines or other publications and of innovative projects which we think will interest you
- Blogs on social media use for sharing evidence – this excites us and we’re keen to share what we discover!
- Interesting pictures. We believe that the images that accompany blogs are really important and we think there are better ways to reflect patients’ experiences than stock photos of models pretending to be patients and clinicians. We are getting more arty as we go along! We’re heard from lots of you that you really like this
Am I going to know how good this evidence is?
Yes! This is something we know is really important to consider and we’re also aware that this information can be hard to find, so we make sure we tell you about how good the evidence is and highlight important gaps or problems. These problems are often a key discussion point, or may be the main focus of the blog; after all, we often feel frustrated to learn what remains unanswered and why and we think it’s important to share this and invite your views on it too.
Can I have my say?
Yes please! We would really like to hear your views, on the evidence or the blogs themselves, and you can do this through the comments section. We also welcome guest blogs so do get in touch if that is potentially you! You can also start, or join in with, discussions on Twitter, where you can follow us @ukcochranecentr.
We hope that Evidently Cochrane will help you to increase your knowledge, to feel better equipped to make choices about health, to join in debate and to challenge the research community, so that future research comes closer to answering the questions we need answered. So do come, keep coming, speak up, and let us know what you think!
