Cochrane is a global independent network of over 40,000 people that gather, analyse and summarise the best evidence from the mountains of research now published every day.
We aim to make this evidence as accessible, reliable and helpful as possible so people, organisations and governments everywhere can make informed health decisions based on unbiased, high quality information.
We’ve published thousands of reviews on all kinds of health questions in the Cochrane Library over the last 25 years, and our work is internationally recognised as top notch, gold standard, evidence you can trust.
We don’t:
Accept commercial funding of any kind – that means no payments or undue influence from pharmaceutical companies, lobbyists or advocacy groups.
• This enables us to work independently to generate trusted information using clear, reliable and transparent methods. Our reputation is built on our long and proud history of independence.
We Do:
Search, appraise and analyse clinical trial data published around the world to come up with answers to important and specific health questions – this is known as conducting a ‘systematic review’.
• Work closely with major global organisations from the World Health Organisation (WHO) to Wikipedia to inform health policies and international treatment guidelines, and improve access to high quality health info for all web users (we know it can be confusing out there!)
Aim to get the best quality evidence into the hands of as many people as possible - our reviews, summaries (available in 14 languages), podcasts, webinars and infographics are made with you in mind – whether you’re a patient, carer, health professional, researcher, journalist or policy maker.
1963
This all started
with a question:
Dr Archie Cochrane
The name of a famous epidemioligist
They don’t make them like Archie anymore.
A Scottish doctor by trade, he rubbed shoulders with Hemingway and Orwell during the Spanish Civil War, tended to prisoners of war in Greece and Germany during WWII, studied the effects of ‘black lung’ in Welsh coal miners... and that was just for starters.
Archie went on to lay the foundations for evidence based medicine. His winning idea? Recognising the importance of looking at all relevant studies - not just one – and combining (or ‘synthesising’) the results.
Our logo shows what a difference looking at the big picture makes. It also represents a couple of Archie’s many missions – to conduct comprehensive and unbiased research, and to improve the lives and health of mums and babies.
Cochrane researchers conduct systematic reviews. That means they use clear, rigorous and systematic methods that aim to minimise bias and produce reliable findings. Each systematic review addresses a clearly formulated question, like the one illustrated in our logo:
Question:
Does giving steroids help premature babies survive?
Happily our research on that question found the answer was yes, and thousands of babies lives have been saved as a result of that Cochrane review.
So how is it done?
Well that’s the tricky and time-consuming part…
Short answer:
Author teams and specialists from around the world search for and collate all the existing primary research relevant to the question that meets certain criteria – that usually means looking at 100s of randomised trials with thousands of participants conducted all over the world. They use stringent guidelines to analyse the results and establish whether or not there is conclusive evidence that answers our question.
We update our reviews as new evidence becomes available, ensuring that health decisions can be based on the most up-to-date and reliable evidence.
Cochrane Today...
You’ll find over 7,500 reviews in the Cochrane Library including user-friendly plain language summaries of what works, what doesn’t and what needs more research. This is produced collaboratively by our contributors, who are:
and people passionate about improving health outcomes for everyone, everywhere
And you’ll find them in 140 countries. Cochrane Australia is one of 47 Cochrane centres around the world.
Our centre in Melbourne supports a network of over 4,000 Australian contributors from all corners of the country - including researchers, editors, authors and five review groups.
We also undertake research, consultancy, advocate for evidence-informed health policies and practices, and train and support Cochrane authors and editors with year round courses and workshops across the region.
Cochrane Australia is part of the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University. We’re funded by the Australian Government through the National Health and Research Council (NHMRC), which also funds a national subscription to the Cochrane Library, ensuring all Australians have free access to the best in trusted health evidence.
