The English Research and Development Programme has been developed not only to promote research but also to promote:

* the dissemination of research findings,

* the promotion of the use of research findings,

* the promotion of an evaluative culture.


The main aim has been to create evidence-based health care and this comprises a range of different issues, all of which will be supported by the work of the Cochrane Collaboration, notably:

* evidence-based patient choice in clinical practice,

* evidence-based public choice and purchasing of health service,

* evidence-based health service management, in both primary and secondary care,

* evidence-based education.


A number of initiatives have been developed to change the culture and skills of the health service, notably:

* a planned programme of critical appraisal skills training for decision-makers, which will use the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews;

* an evidence-based patient choice initiative, which will be using the Cochrane Reviews on schizophrenia and stroke;

* an evidence-based purchasing initiative, which has used the information about steroids in pre-term labour to influence the commissioning of health services;

* the development of Centres of Evidence-Based Clinical Practice which are modelled on the McMaster University approach to education, but which seek to change clinical practice nationally by changing examinations, training curricula, journals and textbooks: this work will also be based on the work of the Cochrane Collaboration.


The proposed workshop will describe how the work of the Cochrane Collaboration is linked to evidence-based health care.