Cochrane Collaboration
The Cohrane Collaboration[1] is an organised effort to establish a database for reviews in medical intervention to ascertain efficacy of those interventions. Interventions are specifically those measures that health care professionals take to alleviate illness and discomfort. The collaboration was initiated by Archie Cochrane. [2][3][4] Cochrane’s Rock Carling Lecture,[5] “Effectiveness and Efficiency, given in1972, is recognised as the initial impetus for the Cochrane Collaboration.[6] In his Rock Carling Lecture, Cochrane delineated the “importance of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in assessing the effectiveness of treatments”. His work subsequently led to the establishment of the Cochrane Collaboration, a global effort locating, assessing and synthesising RCTs in all areas of medicine.[7]
Cochrane’s rationale for this project can be summed up in this excerpt"
- "It is surely a great criticism of our profession that we have not organised a critical summary, by specialty or subspecialty, adapted periodically, of all relevant randomised controlled trials".[8]
References
- ↑ Cochrane reviews and The Cochrane Library - an introduction The Cochrane Collaboration
- ↑ Archie Cochrane Biography Cardiff University]
- ↑ Self-written obituary British Medical Journal (1988 BMJ 297: 63)
- ↑ Obituary to Professor Archibald Leman Cochrane MRC News (1988)
- ↑ The Rock Carling Fellowship Nuffield Trust
- ↑ The Cochrane Collaboration Archie Cochrane ArchiveCardiff University Cochrane
- ↑ Effectiveness and Efficiency Book review of Royal Society of Medicine Press
- ↑ Cochrane A.L. 1931-1971: A critical review, with particular reference to the medical profession. In: Medicines for the Year 2000. London: Office of Health Economics, 1979 1-11. Accessed from Archie Cochrane Archives, Cardiff University, 8 April, 2007 The Cohrane Collaboration