The Growing Prominence of Cochrane Systematic Reviews in Evidence-Based Resources

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The Growing Prominence of Cochrane Systematic
Reviews in Evidence-Based Resources

• Cindy Walker-Dilks, Brian Haynes
• Health Information Research Unit
• (HIRU)
• Dept Clinical Epidemiology Biostatistics
• McMaster University

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Health Information Research Unit (HIRU)
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HIRU
American College of Physicians
BMJ Publishing Group
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Evidence-Based JournalsPurpose
CategoriesOriginal studies and Reviews

• Diagnosis
• Prognosis
• Therapy/prevention
• Etiology/causation
• Economics

• Quality improvement
• Clinical prediction guide
• Differential diagnosis
• Qualitative

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Clinical Editors decide

• Abstract (A-list)
• Vote
• B-list
• Out
• nonclinical endpoint
• too preliminary
• too specialized
• flawed

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Systematic ReviewCriteria

• Methods and sources used for searching for
  articles
• Inclusion/exclusion criteria for selecting
  articles
• ? 1 included study meets criteria for original
  studies

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For example

• Studies of therapy must have
• random allocation of participants to comparison
  groups
• ? 80 follow-up
• clinically important outcomes

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EB summary of a systematic review
Declarative title
Structured abstract
Expert Commentary
Recalculated main results
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Raw material 115 journal titles
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Top Yielding Journals

• N England Journal of Medicine
• JAMA
• BMJ
• Lancet
• Cochrane Database Systematic Reviews

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1996 Journal proportion of A-listJClub EBM
Proportion of abs that are systematic reviews
26 Of these, Cochranes are 5
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1998 Journal proportion of A-listJClub, EBM,
EBN, EBMH
Proportion of abs that are systematic reviews
30 Of these, Cochranes are 24
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2000 Journal proportion of A-listJClub, EBM,
EBN, EBMH
Proportion of abs that are systematic reviews
29 Of these, Cochranes are 25
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2002 Journal proportion of A-listJClub, EBM,
EBN, EBMH
Proportion of abs that are systematic reviews
38 Of these, Cochranes are 41
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2003 Journal proportion of A-listJClub, EBM,
EBN
Proportion of abs that are systematic reviews
34 Of these, Cochranes are 31
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2004 Journal proportion of A-listJClub, EBM,
EBN
Proportion of abs that are systematic reviews
34 Of these, Cochranes are 31
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PLUS PROJECT
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Search Sessions in Ovid by PLUS users Nov 03 to
Sep 04
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Proportion of Full-text DocumentsAccessed in
Ovid Nov 03 to Sep 04
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Cochrane Contributions to Evidence-Based
Resources

• Large number of high quality systematic reviews
  published quarterly
• Clinically relevant topics
• Systematic reviews highest ranking evidence