Cochrane’s new Thematic Groups: Heart, Stroke and Circulation
The concept of Cochrane’s new Thematic Groups was developed at a grass roots level by the Cochrane community in 2021. Throughout a year-long consultation process, the community shared the goal of giving Cochrane’s content and methods experts a central place in our new production model. Last month, Cochrane announced the first seven of 20 new Thematic Groups designed to fulfil this key role.
“Thematic Groups will provide vital subject knowledge and practical know-how to internal and external stakeholders, including guideline developers, government agencies, policymakers and disease associations. ‘They’ll also ensure that our new Cochrane Evidence Synthesis Units and the Central Editorial Service have access to the right topic expertise that maps to key global challenges.” - Cochrane’s Editor in Chief, Karla Soares Weiser
In the third of our series on our new Thematic Groups, we explain more about the aims and reasoning behind Heart, Stroke and Circulation and get the thoughts of Professor Alex Todhunter-Brown (Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions Research Unit) and Professor Gillian E Mead (Personal Chair of Stroke and Elderly Care Medicine at University of Edinburgh).
The Heart, Stroke and Circulation Thematic Group is a new review group combining the expertise of four existing individual review groups. Stroke, heart disease, hypertension and peripheral vascular diseases are leading global causes of mortality and morbidity.
As the population ages and these conditions become more common in low-income countries, the need for an integrated response has become increasingly clear. The new group aims to bring together experts from across all four topics to foster collaboration between researchers in different fields while providing comprehensive reviews on cutting-edge topics related to stroke, heart disease, hypertension and peripheral vascular diseases.
A collaborative effort
Through this collaborative effort, it is hoped that progress toward a better understanding of these conditions can be accelerated while also providing improved patient care.
Professor Gillian E Mead
The individual groups that now make up the Heart, Stroke and Circulation Group have 708 published Cochrane reviews, 216 of which have been used over 1,000 times each and some of which have been used over 5,000 times.
Professor Mead explained: “Multimorbidity prevalence will increase with an ageing global population and we know that different vascular diseases coexist in the same person. We hope that through our new thematic group, we will be able collective expertise and knowledge, create more comprehensive reviews, which will be of benefit to patients living with vascular disease, and also those making treatment and policy decisions in this area.”
Cochrane has traditionally organised itself into disease-specific groups, but with the pattern of disease changing, a single disease focus is becoming less applicable to the general population. As populations age and these conditions become more prevalent in low-income countries, the need to work together becomes increasingly important.
Covering a broader range of topics in greater depth
Alex Todhunter-Brown
This new thematic group was formed to reduce topic overlap between the four areas of research and to improve time-to-publication by sharing collective expertise and knowledge and collaborating with experts around the world. By combining forces, they will be able to provide reviews that cover a broad range of topics with greater depth. The aim is to benefit experts looking for information but, equally as importantly, patients who may have a combination of diseases or issues that cross over between multiple disciplines.
Alex Todhunter-Brown continues: "Management of heart disease, stroke, hypertension, and peripheral vascular diseases is a global challenge that requires an integrated approach. The Heart, Stroke, and Circulation Thematic Group is an alliance of experts, united by a common goal to generate evidence to support the best ways of prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of these conditions. Our goal is to improve outcomes for people with these conditions – we can do this by ensuring that we have robust, reliable evidence about effective treatments and rehabilitation strategies. Working together, we can make a difference to people affected by heart, stroke and circulation problems."