Systematic review

Established to provide the NHS with important information on the effectiveness of treatments and the delivery and organisation of health care. CRD, by offering rigorous and systematic reviews on selected topics, a database of good quality reviews, a dissemination service and an information service, helps to promote research based practice in the NHS.

Some new reviews and protocols from the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group (EPOC) have been published in The Cochrane Library, available through http://www.sahealthinfo.org/ including: Strategies for integrating primary health services in middle- and low-income countries: effects on performance, costs and patient outcomes; Teaching critical appraisal skills in health care settings. Updated reviews: Hospital at home versus in-patient hospital care. New protocols: Local consensus processes: effects on professional practice and health care outcomes; Continuous quality improvement: effects on professional practice and patient outcomes; Care home versus hospital and own home environments for rehabilitation of older people.

The Cochrane Collaboration invites all health care providers, policy makers, educators, consumers, researchers and the healthcare industry to its eighth international colloquium.
Interactive sessions will focus on challenges that are unfolding as the Cochrane Collaboration pursues its goal of preparing, updating and disseminating systematic reviews of the effects of health care interventions. The implications of evidence from Cochrane reviews of health care practice, policy and research will also be considered. Case studies will be used. Training in the method of systematic review and meta-analysis will be provided at both beginner and advanced levels.