Cochrane Collaboration at the UP
The first Cochrane Centre of Hungary was established on 16 October in Pécs, the opening ceremony was a scientific program held at the Hotel Palatinus.
Cochrane is a global independent network of health practitioners, researchers, patient advocates, responding to the challenge of making the vast amounts of evidence generated through research useful for informing decisions about health. It is a non-profit organization with collaborators from over 120 countries working together to produce credible, accessible health information that is free from commercial sponsorship and other conflicts of interest. The World Health Organization awarded Cochrane a seat on the World Health Assembly in 2011 which provides Cochrane an opportunity to promote evidence-based health care at the highest levels of international health care policy-setting.
Professor Gerd Antes, Head of the German Cochrane Centre summarized the aims of the Cochrane Collaboration. Its mission is to help well-informed decision making about health care by preparing, maintaining and promoting systematic reviews. The evidence based medicine started to root at the Medical School of the UP, that is why this faculty has become the basis of the Cochrane Collaboration in Eastern Europe. The next Centre is to be opened in Poland during the next year.
Significant data of the Cochrane Collaboration was presented by David Tovey, Editor-in-chief of the Cochrane Library: yearly approximately 400 reviews, several e-textbooks and guidelines are available. The future is bright for Cochrane Collaboration, one of the biggest challenge for the participants is the dissemination in more and more languages. The Director of the Hungarian Cochrane Centre is Professor Tamás Decsi.