Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: Evidence Aid, an independent international organisation, promotes the use of systematic reviews in disasters, humanitarian crises and other health care emergencies. Since its creation by The Cochrane Collaboration after the Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 2004, it has as grown and has provided summaries of reviews to humanitarian aid workers during disasters such as the earthquake in Japan and Haiti and during floods in Pakistan, Thailand etc.
Objectives: To share the recent developments of Evidence Aid and its 10-year vision.
Methods: Through the needs assessment, organisation of two international conferences on evidence in disasters, and increasing collaboration with aid agencies, systematic reviews are increasingly being discussed in the humanitarian aid community. Additionally, a priority setting meeting in June 2013 will lead to ten priority themes, and from those themes the selection of 30 intervention questions for systematic reviews in disaster management. These new reviews will be added to the Special Collections which already contain more than 100 reviews.
Results: Evidence Aid Special Collections (earthquakes, flooding and poor water sanitation, Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) and burns) containing more than 100 Cochrane Reviews are freely available. Thirty other reviews from the priority setting meeting will be added to the resources, alongside other identified reviews, and will allow Evidence Aid to build a system to deliver relevant information which is seamlessly integrated into other information systems in the field.
Conclusions: Evidence Aid will become a one-stop shop to search for evidence on the effectiveness of interventions in disasters, humanitarian crises and major healthcare emergencies. Evidence Aid’s impact is growing and it has been able to build strong partnerships with aid agencies, research centres and donors. Further steps will focus on increasing collaboration with users of systematic reviews in order to adapt them to the appropriate circumstances in which those users work.
Objectives: To share the recent developments of Evidence Aid and its 10-year vision.
Methods: Through the needs assessment, organisation of two international conferences on evidence in disasters, and increasing collaboration with aid agencies, systematic reviews are increasingly being discussed in the humanitarian aid community. Additionally, a priority setting meeting in June 2013 will lead to ten priority themes, and from those themes the selection of 30 intervention questions for systematic reviews in disaster management. These new reviews will be added to the Special Collections which already contain more than 100 reviews.
Results: Evidence Aid Special Collections (earthquakes, flooding and poor water sanitation, Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) and burns) containing more than 100 Cochrane Reviews are freely available. Thirty other reviews from the priority setting meeting will be added to the resources, alongside other identified reviews, and will allow Evidence Aid to build a system to deliver relevant information which is seamlessly integrated into other information systems in the field.
Conclusions: Evidence Aid will become a one-stop shop to search for evidence on the effectiveness of interventions in disasters, humanitarian crises and major healthcare emergencies. Evidence Aid’s impact is growing and it has been able to build strong partnerships with aid agencies, research centres and donors. Further steps will focus on increasing collaboration with users of systematic reviews in order to adapt them to the appropriate circumstances in which those users work.