Reclassifying reviews on the basis of recommendation and results: steps towards a user friendly interface

Article type
Authors
Kirubakaran R1, Easow Mathew M1, Cherian A1, George A1, Joseph A1, Tharyan P1
1South Asian Cochrane Network and Centre
Abstract
Background: Currently, The Cochrane library interface allows searching reviews based on disease and intervention. This proposal emphasises the need and method for reclassifying reviews of Cochrane library from the perspective of users specifically: • Decision makers who would like to see what interventions are beneficial and harmful for a particular condition. • Researchers who would like to see where the gaps in the evidence are, with respect to various diseases and interventions. However the Cochrane Library currently doesn’t have information that will allow search and display in this format.

Methods: The aim would be to tag all reviews based on the clarity of results and strength of recommendation with respect to various outcomes in a disease condition. We would need to extract information from each review under headers like, information on the review (PICO), summary estimates, and the GRADE evaluation. If the GRADE data is not available, we will need to perform GRADEing of the results. Following this we will need to tag the reviews with this information and present it to user in a searchable format, in such a way that he will be able to sort the hits based on results, recommendations, interventions for a particular disease condition.

Conclusion: This proposal, once put into practice will hopefully facilitate a more user relevant interface of the Cochrane library and consequently more use of the information available.