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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 21 st 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 sometimes known as “evidence based medicine”.
The Cochrane Library is designed to provide information and evidence to support decisions taken in health care and to inform those receiving care.
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
WHAT IS THE COCHRANE LIBRARY?
The Cochrane Library is a collection of 6 main databases and 1 additional database that describes Cochrane as an organization. These are:
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The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) The Cochrane Database of Reviews of Effects (DARE) The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) The Cochrane Database of Methodology Reviews (CDMR) Health Technology Assessment Database (HTA) NHS Economic Evaluation Database (NHS EED)
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About The Cochrane Collaboration and the Cochrane Collaborative Review Groups
The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR)
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 the intervention.
The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR)
What’s so important about it?
Reviews address clearly formulated questions such as ‘does fluoride help prevent tooth decay in children’ or ‘can antibiotics help in alleviating the symptoms of 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 of the current evidence.
A diagrammatic analysis is also provided in the form of an odds-ratio diagram. These diagrams reveal, at a glance, whether a treatment is beneficial or not.
The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR)
What sort of health care questions are addressed?
What is the 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.
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 woman’s 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.
The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR)
How large is the database?
• More than 2070 Full Reviews • 1485 Protocols (Reviews in progress)
The Cochrane Database of Reviews of Effect (DARE)
• > 4,100 records • Contains critical assessments and and structured abstracts of reviews • Must meet minimum quality criteria • Covers topics yet to be covered in CDSR • For Cochrane reviewers and researchers wanting information on reviews of heathcare effects from sources outside The Cochrane Library
The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL)
• > 375,000 records • Contains a register of studies which may be relevant for inclusion in Cochrane reviews • World’s largest database of randomized controlled trials • For Cochrane reviewers needing to identify studies for a Cochrane review and researchers wishing to identify studies in different medical disciplines
The Cochrane Database of Methodology Reviews (CDMR)
Contains 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
Health Technology Assessment Database (HTA)
Contains information on healthcare technology assessments, including details of ongoing projects and completed publications from health technology assessment organisations • Plus information on The Cochrane Collaboration and its Review Groups.
Finding Information
The Cochrane Library has many features that make finding the information that you’re after fast and accurate…
An Advanced Search of The Cochrane Library
All text search for the terms: schizo*, drugs, atypical and antipsychotic.
Searching across all databases in The Cochrane Library.
Searching across all records.
An Advanced Search of The Cochrane Library
Toggle between results listed for the different databases in The Cochrane Library here Save or edit your search using these links.
Returns the following results…
Use these links to restrict your search results to Reviews only, or Protocols only.
MeSH (Medical Subject Heading)
Use the Thesaurus to search for MeSH descriptors Add search qualifiers.
Select the MeSH tree you wish to search.
Search History
Select Search History. To combine searches, enter their number together with Boolean operator of choice – in this case AND.
Your combined search will then come up in your Search History. Click it to run it.
The combined search (#1 AND #2) returns results across all the databases.
Who benefits from The Cochrane Library?
Health professionals at all levels, health researchers, health policy makers, care givers, the pharmaceutical industry, and patients.
FORMATS
• Online via Wiley InterScience (Basic Access License and EAL) • Online via Wiley InterScience (personal license) • Online via Wiley InterScience (National Site Licenses) • CD-ROM - institutional • CD-ROM - personal
Strengths of The Cochrane Library on Wiley InterScience
• Browse and searching functionality is customized to the needs of those working with clinical trials. Achieved through deep consultation and testing with Collaborative Review Groups and longstanding users of The Cochrane Library.
• All of the component databases are loaded in a timely fashion quarterly.
• The Wiley InterScience interface is structured and easy to read.
• Wiley InterScience has extensive linking including Crossref linking. • Wiley InterScience alerting provides users automatic updates in their chosen area.
• Wiley InterScience includes a comments and criticism function allowing the user to communicate with the Collaborative Review Groups.
• The Cochrane Library on Wiley InterScience offers users Cochrane Reviews in a PDF format.
• Wiley InterScience also offers User Statistics to it’s Enhanced User License holders