Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: Scientific evidence is the better knowledge to ensure the best health decisions. This topic is undervalued in Cuba and a change is needed. Information & communication technologies, education and knowledge transfer constitute key pieces to get it.
Objectives: To promote evidence-based practices and the work of the Cochrane Collaboration in Cuban health system.
Methods: A research-development project was carried out by the Coordinating Centre of Clinical Trials (CENCEC) throughout the Ministry of Health during three years, into the human resources formation branch.
Results: A promotional group composed of national and foreign professionals was created. A thematic website supported in the web 2.0 was launched in 2010 through Infomed; it includes a promotion column of Cochrane Collaboration. A chair at the Medical University of Havana was formed. The first postgraduate course on searching, retrieval and critical appraisal of the evidence was validated and it has graduated more than 50 professionals; this includes workshops on the Cochrane Library and systematic reviews. A motivational seminar program is being carried out on our proposal or by request from the health institution concerned and has had over 1320 recipients from three levels of health-care. A joint work with Iberoamerican Cochrane Centre to validate Cuban medical journals for hand-searching of clinical trials was completed. The hand-searching was restarted and sending full-text articles previously identified was made through Dropbox. Supporting the Cuban Public Registry of Clinical Trials (RPCEC) tasks and the development of the first national workshop about evidence as main topic are some other results. Final considerations: Our perspectives are related to bring education& training programs toward virtual learning environments (ongoing on Moodle), to design a central database on the web of published reports of Cuban clinical trials for promoting and facilitating the development of systematic reviews and to keep working for RPCEC.
Objectives: To promote evidence-based practices and the work of the Cochrane Collaboration in Cuban health system.
Methods: A research-development project was carried out by the Coordinating Centre of Clinical Trials (CENCEC) throughout the Ministry of Health during three years, into the human resources formation branch.
Results: A promotional group composed of national and foreign professionals was created. A thematic website supported in the web 2.0 was launched in 2010 through Infomed; it includes a promotion column of Cochrane Collaboration. A chair at the Medical University of Havana was formed. The first postgraduate course on searching, retrieval and critical appraisal of the evidence was validated and it has graduated more than 50 professionals; this includes workshops on the Cochrane Library and systematic reviews. A motivational seminar program is being carried out on our proposal or by request from the health institution concerned and has had over 1320 recipients from three levels of health-care. A joint work with Iberoamerican Cochrane Centre to validate Cuban medical journals for hand-searching of clinical trials was completed. The hand-searching was restarted and sending full-text articles previously identified was made through Dropbox. Supporting the Cuban Public Registry of Clinical Trials (RPCEC) tasks and the development of the first national workshop about evidence as main topic are some other results. Final considerations: Our perspectives are related to bring education& training programs toward virtual learning environments (ongoing on Moodle), to design a central database on the web of published reports of Cuban clinical trials for promoting and facilitating the development of systematic reviews and to keep working for RPCEC.