The Cochrane Library is a mainstay of Evidence-based Practice. It is used to support health care decisions. It is produced by The Cochrane Collaboration, a group of clinicians, consumers, and researchers around the world.
Affinity has online access via Ovid from1996-to current. It is updated quarterly.
How to get there :
Affinity Intranet > Library > Find the Best Evidence > Cochrane
OR in the search box atop any Affinity Intranet page, type in “Cochrane”
Note: Limited number of simultaneous users - please logoff/exit when you're done.
There are 3 main parts to the Cochrane Library :
1) The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR)
2) Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness (DARE)
3) Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials Register (CENTRAL)
The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR)
Also known as “Cochrane Reviews”
Growing collection of regularly updated summaries of the best available evidence prepared by members of The Cochrane Collaboration.
'Gold Standard' for high-quality systematic reviews
Full-text included in Cochrane Library. Includes :
1) Completed Reviews
2) Protocols (reviews that are still in preparation).
Cochrane Systematic Review abstracts are in PubMed but there is no link to full-text of the review.
The Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness (DARE)
Other high quality published reviews prepared by people outside The Cochrane Collaboration.
Prepared by the National Health Service Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York, England.
Complements the CDSR by offering a selection of quality assessed reviews in those subjects where there is currently no Cochrane review.
Brief critical appraisals of previously published reviews of the effects of health care.
Topics include therapy, prevention, diagnosis, rehabilitation and screening.
Structured abstracts, not full-text
DARE not indexed in PubMed, but original research articles may be
also available at no charge on the web from University of York
144.32.150.197/scripts/WEBC.EXE/NHSCRD/start
The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL)
Best source for tracking down the original studies.
Largest single source of controlled trials as part of an international effort to hand search the world's journals.
Includes reports published in conference proceedings and in many other sources not in MEDLINE or other citation databases.
Anatomy of a Cochrane Systematic Review
Cochrane Reviews are highly structured and systematic, with evidence included or excluded on the basis of clearly explained quality criteria.
Every Cochrane Review contains the following parts (See sample abstract) :
Abstract
Synopsis
Background
Objectives
Criteria for Considering Studies for this Review
Search Strategy for Identification of Studies
Methods of the Review
Description of Studies
Methodological Quality
Results
Discussion
Reviewers’ Conclusions
Potential Conflict of Interest
For a quick overview of the review’s findings, the following sections summarize the evidence :
Abstract - summarizes the objectives, methods, results and conclusions
Synopsis - a 100-word plain-language summary found directly beneath the abstract.
Reviewer’s Conclusions - an overview of the most important findings and discusses the implications for practice and research.
A Note before Printing the Complete Review : The full review may be 80 or more pages long and contain info not normally considered useful in a regular journal article. The reviewers include as much information as possible about the evidence they examined, and exactly how and why they arrived at their conclusions. They try to make everything as transparent as possible so that others can do their own evaluation of the evidence, if desired.
Unless you love slogging through metadata, the structured abstract will probably provide what a busy clinician needs to know about the evidence.
For more info :
Ovid Field Guide for The Cochrane Library
NICS Guide to The Cochrane Library
Questions? Contact your Librarian, Michele Matucheski at 223-0340.
