The United States Cochrane Center (USCC) is one of the 12 centers around the world that facilitate the work of the Cochrane Collaboration. Centers share responsibility for helping to coordinate and support members of the Collaboration in areas such as training, and each center promotes objectives of the Collaboration in their region. The USCC is dedicated to promoting awareness of the Cochrane Collaboration and its objectives and access to the Cochrane Library in the United States.

A special mission of the USCC is to support Consumers United for Evidence-based Healthcare (CUE), a partnership with health and consumer advocacy organizations interested in integrating understanding and interpretation of evdence-based healthcare into their advocacy activities, strengthening the voice of consumers in healthcare research, and providing leadership in these areas.

Cochrane in the United States of America

by David Tovey and Robert Dellavalle

Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2010 Sep 22;8:ED000010.

Click here for full abstract

"...the US National Library of Medicine contributed to improving the identification of randomised and controlled trials by supporting for 10 years many aspects of the development of the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), including re-tagging MEDLINE records using information provided by the US Cochrane Center. Currently, eight Cochrane entities are registered in the USA, including three Cochrane Review Groups (CRGs) (namely, Prostatic Disease, HIV/AIDS, and Neonatal), one Field (Complementary and Alternative Medicine), one Methods Group (Screening and Diagnostic Tests, a shared leadership), one Branch (San Francisco Branch of the US Cochrane Center), and one CRG Satellite (Eyes and Vision). The funding for these groups has come from many sources, including the NIH and AHRQ. Approximately 1500 US-based review authors contribute to The Cochrane Library. Furthermore, 35/51 (68.6%) CRGs benefit from the services of a US-based editor, and almost all have at least one US-based author...."

Understanding Evidence-based Healthcare: A Foundation for Action – Course for Physicians

   Understanding Evidence-based Healthcare was created by the United States Cochrane Center. The course was originally launched as part of a project undertaken by Consumers United for Evidence-based Healthcare (CUE) to help consumer advocates understand the fundamentals of evidence-based healthcare. We found, however, that this course is popular with both lay consumers and health professionals and is a required element of a number of educational curricula. A few years ago, the Blue Shield of California Foundation (BSCF) asked us to develop a new “front end” to the course, applicable to physicians, so that they too would see the applicability of the course to their own work. We have done just this and welcome you to the version specifically oriented to the physician participant.

Register for the course here.

Translating Critical Appraisal of a Manuscript into Meaningful Peer Review

This resource is for health professionals who are serving or wish to serve as peer reviewers of the biomedical literature. Because this course was funded by the NEI, we have specifically oriented the Workshop to ophthalmologists, optometrists, and other vision practitioners, mainly based in the US. Although the examples are mainly related to eyes and vision, and the speakers are mainly connected to eyes and vision research, the course is applicable and useful to health professionals from all specialties and those who participate in peer review of the biomedical literature generally. There are no prerequisites for this Workshop, but participants should have a basic knowledge of the approaches and language related to epidemiology, study design, biostatistics, and critical appraisal methods.

For more information about this free, online course, click here.

Handsearching:  Identifying and Classifying Controlled Trial Reports

This online course will prepare you for one of the most important roles in the international effort of the Cochrane Collaboration. Handsearching, the process of manually screening peer-reviewed biomedical journals, conference proceedings and other publications for the best-available evidence is an integral process in identifying results of research that can be used in Cochrane reviews. This training module will prepare handsearchers to identify randomised controlled and controlled clinical trials that match the rigorous standards that doctors, researchers, health care consumers, and others have come to expect from the Cochrane Collaboration. Registration available via the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Training Management System (TRAMS).

Job Opportunity - Faculty Position - Department of Epidemiology

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Baltimore, Maryland USA

Click here to read the job description.

Job Opportunity - Methodologist

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Baltimore, Maryland USA

Click here to read the job description.

Online Course for Consumer Advocates - World Wide Web

PAST EVENTS

• January 12 - 14, 2011:  Developing a Systematic Review Workshop, Baltimore, MD
• October 17, 2010:  Advocacy in the Era of Evidence; An International Summit for Consumer Advocates, Keystone, CO
• October 11-14, 2009: 17th Cochrane Colloquium in Singapore
• July 22-24, 2009: Completing a Systematic Review Workshop, Baltimore, MD
• June 4-5, 2009: Stakeholder Summit on Using Quality Systematic Reviews to Inform Evidence-based Guidelines, Baltimore, MD
• January 15-17, 2009: Systematic Review Workshop, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
• July 10-11, 2008: Priority setting for systematic reviews, a conference sponsored by the US Cochrane Center, Baltimore, MD
• March 14-16, 2008: Systematic Review workshop, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
• September 7, 2007: Evidence-based Healthcare Workshop, Baltimore, MD
• July 17, 2007: First-ever CUE Advocacy Summit - Washington, D.C.